"The Paradox of the Human Robot: Why AI Will Make Us More Human"

Human Scripts, Too Human

A few days ago, I had an experience that could have been written by Kafka. My internet stopped working and I embarked on what would become a 45-minute odyssey with my service provider. “For security reasons, I need to validate your ID,” each of the three agents I was transferred to repeated, like a corporate mantra. Between transfers, the clichés piled up: “Your time is important to us,” “Wait on the line, I won’t hang up,” while making me repeat the same data over and over. Each time, the same information, the same process, the same frustration. The fascinating thing was not the inefficiency of the system, but realizing that the humans on the other end of the line were following such rigid scripts that they made ChatGPT seem flexible.

This experience illustrates a paradox that few are discussing: while we worry about a future where machines replace humans, we have already created systems where humans act like defective machines. Large corporations, especially in sectors like telecommunications and banking, have turned their employees into living algorithm executors, creating what José de la Torre Ugarte calls a ‘paradox of dehumanization’: the more we try to automate, the more mechanical our own interactions become.

From Luddite to Digital Orchestra Conductor

But here’s where the story takes an unexpected turn. The Financial Times says that AI has only increased productivity by 1-2% annually so far. I had coffee with a freelance designer in Miraflores two weeks ago. She used to post stories every day after lunch with anti-AI infographics she made in Canva. She once organized a workshop called “creative resistance in the age of algorithms” in a coworking space. No one showed up. Now she has three monitors on her desk. Each one runs a different AI agent. One searches for trends on Pinterest and Behance while reading critical theory on her Kindle. Another generates 47 variations of each design while she walks her dog. The third sends emails to her clients every 4 hours with surprisingly human-sounding updates. Her income has tripled. Her clients say her designs are “more human than ever.” She says it’s funny. Sometimes she stares at her old anti-AI posts while eating vegan cookies.

The Symphony of the Agents

This is the revolution we will discuss at Game Changers Spain 2024 this November in Madrid. Last night, while reviewing a shared document where three different agents were analyzing labor market trends - each subtly contradicting the other - I realized something ironic: just as digitization turned paper into an object of worship (I have an unused Moleskine that looks accusingly at me from my shelf), automation is doing the same with human interaction. Recruiters on LinkedIn fire off automated messages with the precision of a digital metronome, but when someone writes something genuinely human, the message acquires the value of a relic. The job market is transforming into an ecosystem where each professional is a kind of digital orchestra conductor, directing an ensemble of agents who execute the routine scores while we focus on the interpretation. It’s a strange democratization: we all have access to an army of digital assistants, but the real differentiation is in how we orchestrate this automated symphony.

The irony is delicious: the same agents we feared would make us obsolete are creating a world where our humanity is more valuable than ever. Not because we are more efficient than machines at following processes (clearly we are not, as demonstrated by any customer service call), but because we are experts in the unpredictable, the creative, the truly human.

Madrid, November 28, 2024

At Game Changers Spain 2024 on November 28 in Madrid, we will not only reveal how the most innovative organizations are navigating this transition - we will redefine the entire talent management playbook. Don’t come expecting another conference on AI implementation. There are already too many of those. This is about something more fundamental: how to build organizations that amplify the human rather than replicate it. Because while everyone is obsessed with making machines act more human, the true innovators are using machines to free humans from acting like machines. The paradox is perfect: we needed AI to rediscover our humanity.

The question is no longer whether AI will replace us. That’s the kind of question we were asking in 2023, while eating delivery sushi and watching prompting tutorials on YouTube at 1.75x speed. The real question is how this transformation is catching up to us, silently but relentlessly, like those software update notifications we ignore until one day our phone just updates itself. Last night, at 3:14 AM, while watching my three AI agents debate the future of work in a Google Doc, I had an epiphany: we are no longer who we were six months ago. And within another six, this conversation will seem as ancient as a Facebook status from 2008. If you’re going to miss it, at least do it consciously.