AI: The Revolution of Human Connection

20 years!

It’s been 20 years since Balance Innovation was founded. Still trying to get my head around that. Happy Anniversary, Balance!

For the past two decades, we have continually honed our process and tools to help us be the best human-centered design strategy group we can be. The foundations of the Balance Innovation Framework are built on time-tested and proven methodologies. As new tools and technologies emerge, we explore them to see how they might enhance our outcomes, and more importantly, how we might better connect with customers and users to understand their true pain points. This is what allows us to create real, meaningful progress in the world. Our clients trust us to develop winning product and service design strategies in even the most crowded and competitive markets. This is our superpower.

With regard to our search for new tools, the most powerful tool we have ever seen is here: AI.

The Human-AI Connection

Caleb: What was the real test?
Nathan: You.
Nathan: Ava was a rat in a maze. And I gave her one way out. To escape, she'd have to use self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality, empathy, and she did. Now, if that isn't true AI, what the f*** is?

Dialogue excerpt from the 2014 film ‘Ex Machina’ - where Nathan, the creator of a captive humanoid AI named Ava, has a man named Caleb perform a Turing test on the subject which goes terrifyingly well.

A New Era

In November of 2022 everything felt like it changed for all of us. ChatGPT launched. We could now all have access to a powerful, generative, ever-evolving AI based on a neural network modeled after the human brain - free of charge. The Balance Innovation team dove in headfirst from day one to see just how this new tool could help us and our clients.

To be honest, it was a moment of simultaneous excitement and fear for most of us. So many thoughts ran through our heads: Could we turbo-charge our output? Did this new tool just make us all obsolete? Which jobs will be lost? What will our kids study in college? How far away are we from our ‘Ava’ moment? Can we create more and better solutions faster?

Kurzweil’s Predictions

Since late 2022 I have personally been on a quest to better understand (and maybe even to alleviate my fear of) what separates us humans from the synthetic intelligence of AI. If what we thought was science fiction only a generation ago is now reality, how far might artificial intelligence go, and what value do we have in the future? Ray Kurzweil, a famous American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist, made some intriguing predictions about the future some years ago.

In his 2005 book “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology,” Kurzweil predicts that AI will master the Turing test (a test to measure if a machine can engage in a conversation with a human without being detected as a machine) and surpass human intelligence by 2029, and that humans will ‘merge’ with AI in something he calls “The Singularity” by 2045. When he says we will ‘merge’ he is suggesting we will be able to transcend our biological limitations with the help of AI. In an interview at SXSW in March of 2024, Kurzweil doubled down on his predictions. Will we live forever? Become cyborgs?...It all seems too far-fetched to imagine.

More AI = More Human Connection

Back in the present, however, we still must deal with the near-universal question of where we fit in this new world of now-ubiquitous AI. At Balance, we’ve embraced these tools with open arms, building our own GPTs to assist the team with repetitive, rules-driven, time-consuming tasks and even creative idea exploration. These efficiencies allow the team to spend more time with people, our clients, and those who will interact with their products and services. We are able to utilize this time observing customers in the field, watching their eyes and micro expressions to get a gauge on their emotional state and subconscious reactions to situations as we uncover improvements that can be made in their experiences. We can take advantage of more quality time in the same room with our clients to activate the creativity that happens when there is energy in the physical space during ideation sessions. These are some of the moments where our species’ well-evolved skills shine, but can we be even better through deeper integration of AI?

Deeper Connection, Deeper Well-being

“As we’re at the beginning of the new year rife with already-faltering New Year’s resolutions, we can look to AI, by freeing us from the drudgery of work, to free up more time for contemplation, reflection and spiritual practice.”

“How AI Can Help Humans Become More Human,” by Arianna Huffington, Time Magazine, January 2024

If artificial intelligence can indeed free us up from the toil of work, and give us time to indulge in more ‘spiritual’ pursuits, might we not grow closer to one another? The tools can help us expand our creative potential and explore the minds and emotions of our friends, our families, and our customers. It can assist us in finding better ways to articulate our thoughts, feelings, and stories - ultimately bringing us nearer one another.

Ms. Huffington also suggests that AI could help us with wellness. We might become our best selves by having our connected assistant continually guide us along on a co-designed path toward eating better, getting more exercise, and practicing mindfulness. Imagine the more we coexist with our personal AI, it might learn the best way to gently tap us back onto a positive and healthier path should we stray. It could be a spot check to balance our innately flawed human CPU (intuition) helping us make the appropriate time-sensitive decisions with a cool, analytical approach. A healthier, focused, and less stressed person is a far more effective and happier one.

Reaching the Peak

Could AI finally be the mechanism that assists humanity in reaching Maslow’s peak hierarchical level of self-actualization? If so, AI may be the tool that helps us all to lay aside our insecurities and social anxieties and might bring us closer together providing us with the strongest human connections ever.

If that’s the case, we as innovators can make exponential leaps in uncovering what is really holding people back and create experiences that make the lives of everyone better. Finally, we can develop the most relevant products and services, highly efficient and personal offerings that truly help humans make progress in their lives. And as icing on the cake, we can help make our clients a tidy profit too. Win-Win.

After all, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Has AI improved your life or business, and if so, how? Are there AI innovation topics you would like to explore further? Feel free to reach out to me, I’d love to hear from you!