I'd only seen those AI sales call demonstrations online and never thought I'd be the receiver of such a call. Yet, I was. And it was very very interesting.  

The call actually came through numerous times and went unanswered. After about the 5th time, I decided to call back. I know what you're thinking, "why would I do that?!"  

What happened next was otherworldly. A calm, soft voice on the other side responded, "George, thanks for calling back." The voice shared that this was a cold call, and "it" was AI. While I've interacted with "machine" responses in the past, this experience was much more human-like than I could've ever imagined. I had to remind myself that this was a machine.   

I admit I was afraid to answer any question because I had no way of knowing who was on the other side collecting the answers. So, "No thank you" and "Not today" became my general response to each question. Overall, I was enthralled with the experience and, frankly, didn't want it to end. I was curious. How far would this go?   

Despite the insatiable curiosity welling up inside of me, I kept responding with "No," and it kept responding with one more simple question after another. I felt like a child mesmerized by the piper's flute. "NO," I continued to say. And its calm, gentle demeanor kept coming back again and again. Finally, I ended the call by just hanging up. Then, like Matthew Broderick in War Games, IT CALLED ME BACK!  

What have I done, I thought!

Reflecting on the experience, I walked away in amazement about how AI has evolved. Yet, I couldn't help but feel trepidation about what it meant. 

How could we tell the difference between humans and machines on the phone? This was a sales call; what about scam calls that prey on the vulnerable? We're already hearing stories about people being duped into sending money to someone they thought they knew. Only to learn later it wasn't them!

In this case, the caller identified itself as "AI". So, there was clarity about who I was speaking with. In fact, its rather pleasant human-like demeanor left me feeling comfortable. It's at this point that it hit me.

AI may be great at process. AI may also be great at following a script without wavering, as it did with me. AI may even be able to learn and adapt to the conditions of the conversation and predict what I may actually say next. All of this led me to think about what we humans need from our human-to-human interactions.

Several years ago, when "Robo Investing" came onto the scene, I began sharing that human interaction requires each of us to do these five things:

Putting on a cloak of humility and purposely expressing these attributes in every human interaction will bring us closer to understanding the person on the other side of us. 

As we consider AI interactions, we must realize it has limitations with these human-like interactions. While it may be able to follow scripts without hesitation and even adapt to the intricacies of a human conversation, it can only mimic human experiences and emotion. Therefore,  it lacks the ability to feel – i.e., EMPATHY. 

So, before you abdicate your human-to-human interactions to AI, consider this. 

Can AI: 

While I'm amazed at how AI can augment my work, I know in my innermost soul that only a human can make me feel. 

So, AI, bring it! 

Help me streamline my tasks. Help me research in places that exceed my reach. Help me structure my thoughts more effectively. Finally, leave the creation of safe spaces for human-to-human interactions that maximize our intentionality to ME!

So, how about YOU?