Recently I had a conversation with an experienced manager responsible for over 300 employees. She expressed the view that in the next ten years we could see such significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) that the skills shortage will no longer be a problem and we could all work less for the same productivity. I find that perspective interesting, but I’m more skeptical about what AI can actually do.

While AI can certainly help automate repetitive tasks, I find the fear that AI could fully replace human creativity and complex interpersonal skills problematic. Creativity is more than recognizing patterns; it involves creating something entirely new — something that often has subtle, authentic nuances.

One example illustrates this point: a taxi driver whose only task is to get me from A to B doesn’t have to be creative. Such a job could theoretically be taken over by AI or an autonomous vehicle, especially on routine routes. A human taxi driver, however, who knows their way around and pays attention to cultural subtleties, can provide an additional dimension — for example, by noticing that I’m hungry and offering tips for good restaurants. This kind of extra human interaction and individualized care will be hard to replace entirely by machines.

In the future we’ll likely see both automated, emotionally oriented services that are inexpensive, and premium services that offer deeper human interaction. This will be especially apparent in areas like elder care. Robots might be able to take over basic caregiving tasks, but they will probably be unable to pick up the subtle interpersonal nuances that are important to many people’s well-being.

In summary, I believe we’ll see a coexistence of automated and human services in the future, each with its own pros and cons. AI will certainly make many tasks more efficient, but human creativity and empathy will remain areas where we’ll likely be dependent on the human touch for a long time.

The text was automatically translated from German into English. The German quotations were also translated in sense.