The Human Story of Artificial Intelligence

Right before a child makes a developmental leap, their behavior gets worse. Brazelton called it a touchpoint. We’re in one right now– and we’re calling it artificial intelligence.

There is a particular kind of skeptic who looks at a room full of people using AI and sees a warning sign. They’re not wrong to pay attention. They’re just looking at the wrong thing.

The question isn’t whether someone is using AI. The question is how.

The distinction is everything. And most people aren’t asking it yet.

That is our nature. Unanswered questions leave the human body feeling empty and unable to serve. So we build tools. We always have.

We reach for books when we needed to learn faster than experience would allow. We reached for calculators when the math got too slow. We reached for Google when the library wasn’t enough. At every turn, someone looked at the new tool and worried that it was making us weaker. At every turn, they were asking the wrong question.

The quest has never been about the tool. It has always been about what we were trying to solve.

AI is not the destination. It’s the latest stop on a road humans have been building since the beginning of time.

In my work as a Fractional COO, I sit across from founders every day, trying to figure out what to hand to AI and what to hold on to.

What I’ve learned is that the resistance is rarely about the technology. It runs deeper than that. What they’re really protecting isn’t their process. It’s the illusion of control– because if the system fails, at least they can say it was theirs.

That fear is human. It is honest. And it is exactly what good leaders need to examine before they start making judgments about how their people are working.

We look at how dependent people are becoming on AI, and we call it a problem. But trazelton would call it a touchpoint in the journey of our becoming.

You can’t own a path you’ve never walked before.

The leaders and hiring managers who understand this are going to have an advantage that compounds over time. Not because they’re more comfortable with technology– but because they know how to read people who are figuring it out. They’re asking the right question. Not are you using AI? But how are you thinking with it?

That is new literacy. And it is going to separate people in ways that resumes won’t show and interviews won’t catch– unless you know what to look for.