I have been doing a lot of speaking lately about artificial intelligence and its impact on businesses and society. The usual topics come up — how AI can streamline operations, boost productivity and efficiency, and create new opportunities for businesses, for brands, and for teams. I walk through the benefits of both generative AI and traditional analytical systems, showing audiences how these tools can transform the way we work and live. It has become a comfortable rhythm for me, discussing the practical advantages and addressing the typical concerns about implementation and adoption.

But after one recent presentation, during what turned into a particularly spirited Q&A session, someone asked me a question that I have not been able to shake. They wanted to know: “How can we maintain our humanity –n our human heart — as we venture deeper into AI? How do we make sure we remain human while also embracing this journey into digitalization and technology?”

This was not just another technical question about efficiency or ROI. This was about something much deeper and much more important that made me really deeply about what I believe.

Being human and remaining human is absolutely crucial as we venture deeper into AI and technological advancement.

And what does it mean to be human? It means being able to empathize, sympathize, and genuinely care about one’s wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. It means dreaming not only for our own success and improvement, but also for someone else’s. It means having faith during challenges that difficult times will pass. It means feeling genuine disgust and anger toward injustice, unfairness, and bigotry. These are the things that AI simply cannot do, no matter how sophisticated it becomes.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I become that this question gets to the heart of our AI conversation. Yes, artificial intelligence can draft documents, create images, and produce audio and video files with remarkable efficiency. It can analyze data and identify hidden patterns that would take humans months to identify; it can automate tasks that once consumed our entire workdays and reduce them into hours, if not minutes.

But there is something fundamental that AI simply cannot replicate — the essence of what makes us human. It cannot truly empathize with a colleague going through a tough time. It cannot dream big dreams for someone else’s success. It cannot feel genuine outrage at injustice in the world.

So how do we hold onto our humanity as we integrate these powerful tools into our lives and work? I believe the answer is surprisingly simple, though not necessarily easy: We choose to be human, consistently, continuously, consciously.

We remember that behind every email, every project, every decision, every action, there are real people with real feelings, hopes, and challenges. We use AI to handle the routine tasks so we can spend more time on the uniquely human work of connection, creativity, and care. We let technology amplify our capabilities without letting it replace our compassion.

The future, I am convinced, belongs to those who can master this balance — deploying AI effectively while never forgetting that our humanity is not something to be optimized away, but something to be treasured and cultivated. Because if we lose our human heart in the pursuit of technological efficiency, we will have gained powerful tools but lost something infinitely more valuable.

And that’s a trade-off none of us should be willing to make.