In an era of rapid technological advancements, where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries and workflows, the question remains: What makes us irreplaceably human? Christiane Vejlø, a thought leader in digital trends and author of Arguments for Humans, offered compelling insights into this evolving landscape.
Her keynote at Trackunit Next 2025 explored the intricate relationship between humanity and technology, emphasizing that AI should serve as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity and emotional intelligence.
‘AI can help us make data-driven choices, but human judgment remains irreplaceable.’
Vejlø passionately argued that while AI is undeniably powerful, it lacks the essence of human experience.
“We make sense of the world around us,” she said. “AI has access to a lot of data to pull out an answer to our request. But the thing is, AI does not understand the answer that it creates.”
Her framework identified nine key areas where humans excel beyond AI, such as creativity, social interaction, and sensory perception. “AI can process vast amounts of data, but it doesn’t understand the meaning behind it,” she said. “I asked an AI to generate an image of salmon swimming in a creek, and it returned a picture of salmon fillets floating in water.”
It illustrates, said Vejlø, that currently AI simply doesn’t have the contextual awareness we do. The crucial point here is that it is also about the prompt and commands that we give to the technology. Veijlo said that as humans we need to use our creativity and experience to enable the machines to serve us in the best possible way.
Instead of fearing AI, Vejlø suggested embracing it as a collaborative partner in the workplace.
“AI will be our new colleague. Not a humanoid robot sitting next to you, but an embedded intelligence assisting with tasks,” she predicted. “However, it’s crucial that we leverage our unique human traits, creativity, memory, and experience, to maximize its benefits.”
She warned against the temptation to compete with AI in areas where it excels, such as pattern recognition and calculations. “If we try to think like machines, we will lose to them,” she said. “But if we focus on what makes us human, our ability to create, empathize, and innovate, then we remain indispensable.”
‘AI has access to a lot of data to pull out an answer to our request, but…does not understand the answer that it creates.’
For Vejlø, the future of leadership hinges on emotional intelligence. “Leaders who cultivate self-awareness, empathy, and strong communication skills will be better equipped to build high-performing teams,” she said. She underscored the importance of collaboration and communication in fostering a healthy work environment.
“Being social is one of the most uniquely human traits,” she said.
As AI becomes more sophisticated, ethical concerns become increasingly relevant, Vejlø raises an important question: “Does it matter if music is composed by a human or AI, if it sounds the same?”
As humans we often anthropomorphize objects, but we must remember that a humanoid robot is no more human than a toaster. She said that as AI-generated content proliferates, and takes on physical form, society must maintain transparency about what is human-made versus machine-generated.
Vejlø also highlighted the risks of blindly trusting AI-generated outputs. “I once asked AI to generate an image of construction workers saving a cat from a tree. The result? A bizarre fusion of a human and a cat. Another illustration that AI doesn’t understand reality — it just stitches together patterns based on data.”
Vejlø emphasized the need to strike a balance between human intuition and AI efficiency. “We must decide how much of our decision-making we want to delegate to machines,” she said. “AI can help us make data-driven choices, but human judgment remains irreplaceable.”
Another example she used was of a sustainable building development, which used technology in its design and build, to Vejlø it lacked creativity or a uniqueness and begged the question, where was the human input?
“I created an AI-generated image of people at a pool party,” she said. “The AI, not understanding gravity or water, placed everyone floating mid-air above the water. It’s a great reminder that AI still lacks fundamental human reasoning.”
‘If we focus on what makes us human, our ability to create, empathize, and innovate, then we remain indispensable.’
Looking ahead, Vejlø believes AI will redefine work by automating repetitive tasks, freeing humans to focus on creativity and innovation.
“AI will take care of the tedious work,” she said. “But it’s up to us to ensure that our work remains meaningful and engaging.”
She encouraged organizations to foster environments where creativity thrives. “We need to make sure that there is creativity, and the workplace has good social culture.”
Vejlø’s perspective offered a hopeful and empowering vision of the future — one where AI enhances, rather than replaces, human potential. As she put it, “We are at a point in history where we have AI intelligence, we also have the human intelligence, and we need to decide how to balance this for our benefit.”
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