This is a guest blog post from Brian Cohen, Managing Partner at Hearthstone Venture Group and Future Proof Advisor
Finally… We have arrived in the age of working smarter, not harder.
AI has made it possible. It has reshaped what work looks like in the modern-day enterprise. It is digesting information at superhuman speed, synthesizing complex data scenarios, and automating tasks so well that it is not a matter of if, but how you are using AI to make your business a better, smarter, and more efficient machine.
What is incredibly frustrating is the way so many talking heads are using scare tactics and condescension to shame those who have not figured out their specific use case.
- “If you are not using AI, you are falling behind.”
- “How can you not have an AI strategy?”
- “Get ready. AI is going to replace your job.”
Valueless statements for shock value and clickbait, AI style. Hopefully, you will see the irony in that statement as you read on.
To me, AI is not a strategy or something to fear. It is a tool, albeit a powerful one, designed to improve how we do the things we do, much like the internet did in the late 90s, and social media and smartphones did after that.
Using the tool to its fullest starts by recognizing that AI alone is not the answer. Much like its predecessors, you still need a functioning, feeling, and experienced human brain to make it truly work. It is the combination of the two that makes the creative and productive machines we see now that deliver so much so fast and that enhance what we deliver rather than threatening it.
Starting with the most basic baseline… understanding what AI can and cannot do
No disrespect to the many brilliant professionals I have worked with in my career, but AI has become the most powerful and efficient knowledge worker I have ever worked with. I learned long ago that my success as an executive was built on never being the smartest person in the room (which, as it turned out, was never all that hard to accomplish…). I relied heavily on those brilliant knowledge workers to present data, know how to build complex ecosystems, and make breakthrough recommendations to give us a competitive advantage, ultimately making my job as a decision maker easier.
As that knowledge worker, AI is simply on another level. The difference, though, is in the recommendations and actions themselves. The right choice is always informed by facts and emotions, the latter in the form of experiences, a history of successes and failures, and human empathy and understanding.
Staying true to my point, these are my human views… with a big-time assist from AI to support the organization, nuance, and some of the content in the message.
Using AI as a Supercharger for Knowledge Work
As I said, I have worked with some of the very best knowledge workers in the world. I am talking Mensa smart superminds. I have also worked with some of the most brilliant coders, enterprise delivery engineers, and data scientists in the world. Exciting people to watch in their element. The kind of people who just see things others do not. Even still, it would take them weeks of poring through research and too many nights and weekends of plugged-in development to inform their final, bleary-eyed recommendations and outcomes. Unfortunately, none of it would or could be as informed or complete as what AI can do in seconds.
Using AI to Accelerate Data Synthesis
AI eliminates the grunt work by digesting millions of inputs, analyzing trends across years of data, and generating a series of thought-provoking strategies in seconds. It empowers teams to move from information overload to actionable insight instantly. And it does this so quickly that any decision maker, strategist, or otherwise, need only carry the ball over the goal line.
AI Drives Development Efficiency
Not to get into a vibe-coding debate, but the growth and effectiveness of tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable, and others in such a short period of time is mind-blowing. And the ability to simply have a “conversation” about what you would like done, only to have it done in seconds, is game-changing. It is imperfect, but it works. Almost uncomfortably well.
AI Eliminates the “Cost of the First Draft”
Whether it is drafting a proposal, analyzing a market, finding white space, or building a financial model, AI removes the friction of data gathering and approach validation. Teams spend less time creating repeatable tasks and more time refining. It is simplifying the time-consuming administrative work that slows businesses down. I use it to write every proposal I send out. I have it conduct a SWOT analysis on every CIM I read or market I want to enter. It does it in seconds, and it is always enlightening in some unexpected way.
AI Delivers Consistency and Precision at Scale
This was a ChatGPT suggestion, and as an emotional leader, one I thought was particularly poignant. AI does not get tired, distracted, or emotionally drained. It delivers consistent research, documentation, and outputs across hundreds of tasks and thousands of pages. Any executive who has had to lead even one person knows that balancing workload and burnout is key to maximizing value. That is a non-issue with AI. It is the workhorse you need.
Wisdom, empathy, and the importance of the human existence
This, to me, is why I have come to appreciate AI rather than feel threatened by it. Even the most advanced AI models lack the qualities that define experienced operators, trusted leaders, and most importantly, good human beings.
AI Does Not Replicate Experience
Experience is built from years of consequences, wins, losses, pivots, failures, and recoveries. It shapes intuition in ways no machine or algorithm can mimic. AI does not have a gut feeling or understand how a decision will impact people and company morale.
AI can tell you what happened. AI can even predict what might happen. But it cannot feel the weight of past decisions or understand the nuance of human emotions resulting from the choices you must make. It cannot understand what it means to bet your career on a tough call, navigate a crisis at 2 a.m., and know what a team or an individual needs to feel safe and stable. Experience is encoded in the human nervous system, not in a dataset.
AI Cannot Understand Human Emotion or Context
AI responds to words; humans respond to meaning.
Great leaders read the room, feel the tension, notice the pause, and hear the things not being said. They sense when a team is exhausted, when a client is losing confidence, when a founder is burning out. Humans are driven by ego, personal and team accomplishments, and a feeling of belonging. AI can approximate sentiment. Only people can practice empathy.
AI is Book Smart, Not Street Smart
I grew up understanding the nuanced difference between being street smart and being book smart. We have all met those people who had bad grades throughout school but were wildly successful in life, and vice versa. It is the ability to see through the data and understand what to do and not to do. It comes from gut feeling and real-world experiences. I sometimes call it wisdom plus. That is why humans continue to be so important. Wisdom is the intersection of knowledge, judgment, values, and time. It answers questions like:
- Should we do this, not just can we?
- Is this the right strategic moment?
- What is the cost of waiting?
- Will this inspire those around us to bring their very best?
- What is the impact on culture, people, and trust?
- Is this the right moral thing to do?
AI can calculate outcomes, sure, but humans must prompt with the right questions. And only humans can interpret those outcomes within the broader narrative of purpose, ethics, relationships, and long-term value creation.
Understanding the Nuance, and Building Your Unique Approach
The optimal path is not human or machine. It is human and machine. So what does that mean for you as an executive leader? How about as an entry-level employee or mid-level manager? Here are some questions I use within my own practice, alongside business partners and with my clients, to ensure we are consistently optimizing our approach.
Are We Treating AI As A Force Multiplier vs. A Job Replacement?
AI should be doing the heavy lifting, pattern recognition, and scenario generation, but the strategic decision-making, framing, and interpretation still need to reside with experienced humans. Humans must do the thinking part of the job.
Are We Bringing Everyone Along?
Task your CHROs to look at every job function across your company to see how you can easily leverage AI in each function. Look at job descriptions to determine what success looks like and how we can transform, rather than replace, knowledge work so career pathing and influence increase at all levels. Ask yourself if you are recognizing, valuing, and encouraging human thinking vs. tangible outputs. I truly believe employee satisfaction will increase as companies start valuing different contributions.
Are We Building Evergreen Learning Agendas?
Use AI outputs as inputs into human reflection. What surprised us? Where did the model misread? What does this teach us about our domain and decision-making? From there, continuously review and evolve your processes and workflows. Learn, adapt, repeat.
Are We Giving Ourselves Grace?
If anyone tells you they have it figured out, tell them to take a lap. No one has. The winners are simply willing and enthusiastic about trying. Make mistakes. Learn from the mistakes. Share those mistakes with others so they learn from them as well.
The Bottom Line
Though AI is transforming how work gets done, it has not yet mastered the uniquely human qualities that sit at the core of leadership and decision-making. The latter is where the true power of the tool lies. Experience, empathy, judgment, and wisdom, intrinsically human qualities that guide our every waking minute, will continue to give us the advantage. And though AI has leveled the playing field for companies big and small in terms of access and data synthesis, those irreplaceable human qualities that create value, build trust, and drive differentiation are what separate the winners and the losers.
The winners are recognizing the balance we need to strike. AI is a force multiplier, but humans and human characteristics are the source of true difference. Let AI handle the grunt work and the complexity. Only humans can handle the meaning, the impact, and make the hard choices.
Brian Cohen is a seasoned chairman, board director, strategic advisor, and former CEO with 25+ years of experience driving growth, turnarounds, and enterprise value creation across marketing, technology, and consumer sectors. He leads Hearthstone Venture Group, advising RFE Investment Partners, G2 Capital Advisors, and Inspired Thinking Group, and sits on the boards of Based in Theory and AstronetX. Previously, Brian was CEO of PureRed, where he quadrupled enterprise value in under four years before its sale to ITG. He also turned around Match Marketing Group during COVID and oversaw its sale, and earlier held senior roles at Epsilon and Catapult Marketing, co-founded Porterhouse Digital, and served as Managing Director at G2 Capital Advisors. His leadership has consistently driven sustainable growth, making him a key asset to Future Proof Advisors as we guide businesses toward successful outcomes.
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