How to Use AI Without Losing the Human
Have you ever sat across from someone in financial services who clearly knew their stuff, but something felt off? Maybe the answers felt a little too polished. Maybe the data came just a little too quickly and fit with your goals just a little too neatly. You sat through the presentation, never doubting the data, yet still questioning the intention.
That feeling, that gap between information and connection, is the trust gap. And right now, it’s at the center of one of the most important conversations in business. There is a massive contradiction in the data right now.
The Data Doesn’t Lie — But It Does Contradict Itself
SurveyMonkey’s 2025 report, “The State of AI in Customer Experience: Consumer Sentiment vs. Business Reality,” provided this data.
On the one hand, 84% of business leaders see AI as the ultimate lever for enhancing the customer experience. However, 81% of consumers are calling bullshit.
81% of consumers surveyed view AI implementation as nothing but a cold cost-saving measure that has nothing to do with customer experience. We ignore our customers at our peril.
A Little Context
Don’t get me wrong, I am not anti-AI. I have been a huge technology fan ever since Grade 7 when I used to stay at school to use the one lone Apple II+ until the janitor kicked me out. I’d program in BASIC, marveling that I could make words appear on the screen.
10 HOME
20 INPUT “WHAT IS YOUR NAME? “; N$
30 FOR I = 1 TO 10
40 PRINT “HELLO “; N$; “!”
50 NEXT I
60 END
I’ll admit I had to get Gemini to remind me what that code block looked like. It was the late 70s, early 80s after all. I would not have remembered that you needed the line numbers.
It would be ridiculous for any business or human not to leverage technology in order to enhance efficiency. When I was CEO of Axiom Mortgage, technology gave us an early edge over competitors. We were one of the first to leverage company-wide, centralized CRM systems (yes, this was pre-cloud).
The Race to the Middle
The problem I see now is that technology is ubiquitous. Information has become a commodity, and automation has replaced discernment. Part of our value proposition is our authenticity and uniqueness. In a world where we increasingly have all the answers and none of the context, we need to ensure we are not automating away our brand loyalty.
There is a saying in sales that goes something like:
“In the absence of value, price is the only thing that matters.”
When we get caught up in the race to the middle, where we seek to homogenize our product or service offering, we put ourselves on a never-ending hamster wheel.
Become more generic, cost less.
Become more generic, cost less.
Become more generic, cost less.
Become more generic, cost less.
When we remove humanity, we strip away valuable contextual insights. We ensure our interaction is purely transactional. There may well be a business model for the transactional relationship, although the more humanity we strip out of the world, the more our customers, suppliers, and staff will seek places to find it. Human beings are hard-wired for connection.
When the Stakes Are Personal
When the stakes are personal, people want a human.
My son is currently wrapping up an accounting degree at St. FX University in Nova Scotia. He is working on his honours thesis, which includes a research study on the impact of AI in tax preparation. What his research has found is that while 82% prefer a human over AI, 69% believe that the replacement of human tax preparers with AI is inevitable. Trust does not rely solely on efficiency or accuracy. People don’t simply want their taxes done. Trust is built when you feel someone understands your situation and has your back.
Don’t Win the Quarter and Lose the Customer
It brings to mind the long-standing leadership challenge. We have to be careful not to win the quarter while losing the customer. In a world where most leaders are only as good as their last quarter, this can be quite a challenge.
Three Things to Consider When You Automate
Therefore, we need to pivot the conversation. Here are three things to consider when implementing AI solutions in your organization.
1. The Transparency Test: “Does the customer know they are talking to a machine?” SurveyMonkey’s data shows trust drops immediately when AI is “hidden.”
- Action: Be vocal about where AI is being used. Don’t pass a bot off as a human named “Dave.” When you’re honest about the technology, customers are 3x more likely to be patient with its limitations. This is one reason I have labeled my posts as original or AI-enhanced. (Ahem, Gemini helped me pull the stats from this report)
2. The “Busywork vs. Bonding” Audit Are you automating the customer’s experience or your employee’s back-office tasks?
- Action: Use AI to handle the “mechanics” (scheduling, data entry, basic FAQs) so your humans have more time for meaning work (strategic advice, complex problem solving, and empathy). If your AI is replacing human interaction instead of enhancing it, you’re cutting costs at the expense of your brand.
3. The Emotional Escalation Protocol AI is great for competence, but terrible at warmth.
- Action: Build an empathy trigger. If a customer shows signs of frustration, confusion, or a complex emotional need, the AI should immediately hand off to a human. Nothing kills a relationship faster than being trapped in a loop with a bot when you’re already upset. Remember the good ole days of phone tree hell shouting into the phone “CUSTOMER REPRESENT TA TIVE!!”
AI is not the enemy of trust. The organizations and leaders who will excel in the future are the ones who remember that AI, efficiency and automation need to be in service of connection. Not a replacement for it.
