The Role – and Limits – of AI in Your Business Today

(Photo Courtesy of Janet Lewis Mattriciani)

To corrupt the famous Monty Python sketch from Life of Brian: apart from chatbots handling customer inquiries, writing emails and presentations, spotting fraud, giving personalized recommendations, predicting demand, optimizing inventory, digitizing invoices, screening resumes, simulating product designs, analyzing massive datasets, and reviewing legal contracts … what has AI ever done for us? Absolutely nothing.

But, of course, everything has limitations. During the Industrial Revolution, workers feared their jobs would disappear. In reality, many jobs evolved, new industries emerged, and productivity rose — there were still jobs for all. In the 1980s and 1990s, computers and automation sparked similar fears: clerks, typists, and assembly-line workers might vanish. Once again, jobs transformed into IT, tech support, and software development.

Sometimes, governments even slow automation to protect employment. New Jersey, for example, still doesn’t allow people to pump their own gas. The official reasons: safety (today, really?), service (not exactly a complex skill), and jobs (ah-ha, truth will out). But progress wins eventually.

So why all the shrieking and doomsaying about Artificial Intelligence then?

Firstly, AI works fast — and across many industries. But speed alone isn’t revolutionary. History shows that transformation doesn’t equal elimination. Big data promised the world; the right data at the right time did far more than mountains of analytics ever could.

Secondly, AI can handle cognitive tasks — PowerPoint decks, data analysis, even writing reports. True, these are desk jobs, but progress has always replaced some tasks with tools: tractors replaced farmhands, calculators replaced abacuses. Jobs evolve.

Thirdly, most people don’t really understand AI. Fear thrives in ignorance. For every person who truly understands blockchain, thousands are flailing — same with AI. (Cryptocurrency is worse: for every one person who “gets it,” millions do not.)

Now, what can AI not do? Actually, rather a lot.

It cannot be genuinely funny. It can tidy your stories or make sentences less messy, but it cannot craft a Seinfeld skit or a witty anecdote that appeals to your audience.

It can’t be truly creative. AI is built on what already exists. It can’t imagine a market that doesn’t yet exist, invent a product with no precedent, or see gaps in ways only a human mind can. And it’ll give the same answers to all your competitors. Originality will always be irreplaceable by any form of machine-based learning.

It can’t make moral or ethical decisions. Its “best answer” is always based on prior data, not values or judgment (and given the state of the world, humans don’t always excel here either).

It can’t navigate human dynamics. It won’t read the room, notice who’s resistant to your big idea, or inspire a team to follow it through fire and water. It’s not your soulmate, therapist, aunt, brother, or — God forbid — your god.

It can’t understand nuance. No intuition, no gut feeling (no gut, period), no contextual awareness. Even if it “knows” you, the answer will still be generic — because it’s giving the same one to thousands of others. It just does not know you well enough (and you are just not unique enough anyway, sorry).

It cannot do physical work in the real world without help: cleaning, cooking, fixing, or making a nice cup of tea are all off-limits. It’s not going to be physically intimate with you. And even if robots one day give great massages, they’ll never replace the energy of human touch.

In short, AI is a tool — not a partner, advisor, soulmate, or leader. It amplifies human capacity but can’t replace judgment, creativity, or vision. And for all its speed, it’s often ignorant and sometimes flat-out wrong.

Yes, AI will get faster, smarter, and more accurate. But speed and efficiency alone are not strategy. It cannot account for legal frameworks, internal company culture, or the messy realities that make business hard. History shows that originality — like the lone farmer planting corn while everyone else plants wheat — cannot be automated.

As John Maynard Keynes famously said, “In the long run, we are all dead.” Don’t worry about AI taking over the world. Focus instead on leveraging it for what it does well while you do what humans do best: create, empathize, lead, and imagine.

And be flexible. Job evolution has always meant as we age, the technical skills we have become less relevant — unless we keep learning to keep up. If you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. More experienced folks can take courses in how to use AI rather than how to code — and lean into the irreplaceable human skills that years in the workforce has created. These are critical thinking, people skills, ethics & judgment, and — most important of all — creativity.

Young workers have a different issue due to the presence of AI. In past decades, if you didn’t land a job right away, you could still catch up later. Industries moved slowly, skills lasted for years, and employers trained you. But today, with AI and technology advancing every few months, standing still means falling behind fast.

The half-life of skills has shortened, gaps look bigger, and early adopters of AI gain outsized advantages. The danger is real — but so is the opportunity. Unlike before, anyone with Wi-Fi can upskill, experiment, and showcase AI-powered projects that make them instantly valuable. The message for those new to the workforce is clear: if you’re not working, make sure you are still learning.

Relax and enjoy the ride without trying to make it stop. There have always been evolutions and revolutions. The sky has been “falling” for centuries. It’s still up there. And the last thing I’m going to be scared of is Elon Musk’s robots. Being scared of Elon Musk himself, however … that may be entirely sensible.

Janet Lewis Matricciani is a two-time CEO who has worked all over the world and is multilingual, now sharing her business lessons publicly. She is a regular contributing writer to this magazine and can be reached at jlmatricciani@gmail.com.