\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
When the AI boom began, many leaders<\/a> felt the rush. Tasks that once took hours suddenly took minutes. Hiring pipelines felt manageable again. Content became easier to produce. Naturally, leaders started asking, If AI<\/a> can do all this, what else can we hand off?<\/p>\n That question is where things began drifting into territory I know well: culture, leadership, communication, coaching and motivation \u2014 the very areas I\u2019m hired to speak and write about. And it\u2019s also where some leaders started getting themselves into trouble.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not an AI expert<\/a>, nor do I pretend to be. But because I give presentations and lead trainings for franchise systems and frontline managers, I\u2019m often pulled into conversations about tools promising to improve culture or performance. As AI hype grew, more tech companies approached me for endorsements of their platforms. Most position themselves as culture boosters or performance enhancers. I don\u2019t take referral fees, so my opinions aren\u2019t for sale \u2014 but I am curious. I\u2019m always looking for tools that genuinely help the businesses I serve.<\/p>\n What concerns me isn\u2019t the technology itself \u2014 it\u2019s how some companies are applying it to the most human parts of their business.<\/p>\n Related: This Is the Invisible Force That\u2019s Quietly Rewriting the Rules of Success<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n One platform I was shown aggregates data across a franchise system and generates individualized recommendations for each owner and the field coaches who support them. If it detects high turnover and low customer satisfaction, it might suggest: \u201cImprove company culture.\u201d<\/p>\n Sure. And telling a basketball player to \u201cscore more points\u201d is also technically good advice. But without how<\/i>, it\u2019s just noise.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve also seen tools that attempt to gamify culture by awarding badges or prizes for compliments and internal communication. It\u2019s an interesting idea \u2014 but culture isn\u2019t something you win. It\u2019s something you build. Culture<\/a> is the shared beliefs, values, habits and behaviors that develop over time. It\u2019s the social norms that define how people treat one another. A tool can support that dynamic, but it can\u2019t create it or manage it.<\/p>\n Culture is emotional. It\u2019s psychological. It\u2019s human. AI doesn\u2019t feel those things, which means it can\u2019t teach people how to create them.<\/p>\n AI has reshaped hiring \u2014 sometimes for the better, sometimes not.<\/p>\n My son recently applied for a job where the \u201cinterview\u201d consisted of a prompt on a screen and a countdown clock. No conversation. No interaction. One take. He didn\u2019t move on.<\/p>\n A few weeks later, the same company posted a similar role. He applied again \u2014 this time knowing what the process felt like. He wasn\u2019t more experienced or more qualified. He was simply more comfortable performing for a two-minute video countdown. That\u2019s what got him through. The system wasn\u2019t measuring talent; it was measuring familiarity with the system.<\/p>\n Some of the best employees I\u2019ve ever seen aren\u2019t polished interviewers. They\u2019re steady, loyal, humble and kind. If you sat across from them, you\u2019d feel it. But a timed video prompt won\u2019t pick that up. Nor will it create the psychological safety that helps candidates overcome nerves and show who they really are.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a difference between collecting information about a person and actually understanding who they are. One requires data. The other requires being human.<\/p>\n AI is excellent at improving operations. It can organize schedules, track metrics, analyze trends, document procedures and surface insights that once took days to gather. I use AI myself for research and idea development.<\/p>\n But AI becomes a liability<\/a> when businesses use it as a substitute for leadership \u2014 especially the parts that require emotion, judgment, nuance and humanity.<\/p>\n AI can\u2019t read the look on someone\u2019s face when they\u2019re having a bad day. It can\u2019t spot the quiet employee who\u2019s actually your most reliable performer. It can\u2019t coach someone through frustration or sense when a customer needs reassurance. It can\u2019t build trust.<\/p>\n Leaders sometimes forget that the most important parts of their job are invisible: tone, empathy, encouragement and connection. AI can\u2019t feel, so it can\u2019t make anyone else feel anything either. And people can tell the difference.<\/p>\n Everyone loves to say they\u2019re \u201cin the people business.\u201d But when you hand your most human responsibilities to software, you\u2019re not in the people business anymore\u2014you\u2019re just in business. And people feel that too.<\/p>\nThe AI tools that promise too much<\/h2>\n
Where AI hiring misses what humans see instantly<\/h2>\n
Where AI helps \u2014 and where it hurts<\/h2>\n