“Time isn’t holding up. Time isn’t after us.”
Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”
If you are launching the newest app or just trying to improve operational efficiency at your firm, you are probably squaring up against a common modern foe: time. Or more specifically, time-seapage, time-wasting, or inefficiency.
I saw a recent ad from Instacart that promised parents more time with their kids because they would get all this time back that they used to spend shopping. Of course, this ignores the likely reality: parents will merely transfer that in-store time with time selecting items on their phones. How much time did they actually transfer to active parenting? That parent could have brought their kid along and engaged them in the process. An infant could learn the colors and shapes by picking out fruit. A middle-schooler could learn how to look for deals or calculate unit costs per item to determine the best value. The high school kid probably won’t want to go, but hopefully they’ll appreciate the offer for companionship in 10-20 years?
The point is that the promise to “buy time back” is often met with underwhelming results because we fritter away any potential gains.
As it turns out, the trade-off we make is often not using tech for more time, but technology for less humanity. As we attempt to increase our efficiency, it often means less human interaction. In retail, that used to be spent engaging with a check-out person is automated to self-checkout or eCommerce apps like Instacart. Of course, with AI, that’s the underlying value proposition: the removal of human labor for a less-expensive robotic input.
While AI is an inevitable force, I think it’s worth reflecting on this tradeoff so that we can create the best version of ourselves and our companies.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
How we collectively have been losing our sense of humanity
How automation accelerates this trend
How we, as business leaders, can get it back
Modern Life Increases Isolation
On a recent visit to San Francisco with my family, I imagined the strangeness of the scene in front of me as an alien visiting the beautiful City by the Bay.
On one hand, they would find a sizable population living on the streets, sleeping on sidewalks, or walking zombie-like through an urban apocalypse.
Then, in direct proximity, they would find a fleet of cars filled with the well-to-do being whisked through the hills by a robotic car.
If you dropped into this scene, you might wonder why so many people were listless, but the cars drove themselves.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that the City of San Francisco simply employ the unhoused population as Uber drivers, but the scene is bizarre nonetheless.
As a technologist, I think the adoption of urban, electric, driverless cars is a force for good.
I also recognize the dystopic vignette: We desire humanless pods to ferry us past the nameless beings whom we treat with derision because of their economic misfortune or substance addiction.
Each of those lives was once a child full of promise and love. Yet for most of us, they are a problem of modern, urban living. At the same time, the technology we deploy (in this case for transportation) seeks to eliminate any connection or reliance on humans.
We are literally living in our own bubble.
All of this made me think of another urban scene from last winter in New York City.
On December 4, 2024, in Midtown Manhattan, a man was murdered in broad daylight. In the days and months that followed, people hailed the assassin as a hero.
How could a substantial segment of society celebrate cold-blooded murder?
When the victim was the CEO of United Healthcare, Brian Thompson.
The celebrants have psychological and emotional distance from the wife and children who mourned Thompson’s slaying. They don’t see Thompson as a person, but a symbol.
But of course, many who have called attention to this incident have also pointed out the stories of United Healthcare and denying necessary health coverage to the dying. The healthcare system that this victim symbolized relies upon a disintermediated system that can treat patients like profit centers instead of humans in need of care.
Healthcare in the U.S. could use some more humanity, too.
Automation Removes the Human Element from Commerce
If you automate a task, you are removing a human being from the process.
This is a tradeoff.
And, despite my lamentations above, it can totally be worth it.
At Kasvaa, we seek to automate our marketing. I’d love to sit and ponder each potential prospect and think deeply about their business before reaching out to them with an earnest and well-researched proposal. But I don’t do that until I have qualified that they would even be open to a conversation. This approach means less human touch upfront, but it allows me to connect with more potential prospects who need business guidance.
On the other hand, my cell phone number is available to basically anybody. If you take the time to call me, I believe you deserve to speak with me. If I don’t answer right away, I will call back.
When a company buries its customer service number or the phone lines are staffed with robots, we leave customers holding the bag. When we work entirely remotely and connect only through boxes on computers, we disconnect from what makes commerce a fundamentally human endeavor.
I’m not saying tech and operational efficiency are evil. In some cases, they may be vital. I am currently advising a start-up, as a Mentor in the FoundersBoost accelerator, that is going to upend my very industry. Mindcorp is seeking to take the time and human-intensive work that business consultants do to guide clients and reduce it to a few hours of work by AI agents.
Why should my clients pay Kasvaa thousands of dollars for what could be done in hours by a machine?
I don’t think they should, but I also don’t believe machines can completely replace the work we do guiding business growth.
I’m not sure what the answer is, but I know that each act of efficiency has a loss of human connection.
We just need to figure out if that trade-off is worth it and we add back more human connection to our customer encounters.
So, how do we do it?
Let’s close the piece by considering how this trade-off impacts product design and messaging.
At Kasvaa, we often borrow from the Jobs To Be Done Framework, by asking our clients, “What is the job your customer needs to do?” If the answer is to get more time back, then you have to ask, “To do what?”
Your thing offers efficiency, but that’s not a goal unto itself. You have to ask what the efficiency is trying to achieve.
In the above AI for Consulting example, I believe they are attempting to get past the analysis and get us to decision-making. The hard part of consulting is driving new behavioral change. Pointing out that clients have problems via analysis is relatively simple.
Furthermore, if you are marketing a product, ask yourself how your value will create a more human world that allows people to have meaning in their lives and business. Then ask if that claim is believable.
Remember, as a business leader, that should be your ultimate goal: create commercial value by improving life. If you didn’t do that, then people should not pay you.
I’ll close by offering a short list of things you can do today for your customer or vendor to remind them that we are just people trying to do business together, to help each other.
Send a personal note to a customer. Write it by hand. It will take 2 minutes, and your customer will appreciate it.
Give a call to someone in your Rolodex. Don’t email them, call them. See how they are doing. Make that the whole agenda.
When you do send an email, try to make it sound like your actual voice, you use when you speak. Drop the jargon and talk like someone who is a human, not a “business person.”
Start a business meeting by asking everyone to share three positive things. We do this all the time at Kasvaa. It keeps us focused on the positive and drives a better meeting when everyone is in a headspace that sees positive possibilities. We all have a negativity bias that must be managed. Also, you can learn something about your team and customer when you dare to ask!
Ask about fears. So many people have high anxiety these days. See what’s bothering people and ask if there is anything you can do for them.
What do YOU need? I’m a real human who seeks to help other humans pursue their business dreams. I’d love to talk with you. Please drop me a line, and you never know what magic might happen when two humans connect.
Best,
Stephen