Commentary: Where AI Will Win (And Lose)

Sorry. AI won't become your boyfriend.

There’s a lot of talk right now about various AI projects appearing and disappearing. OpenAI, for its part, is complaining that without free access to human creativity it cannot continue to run while Nvidia is hitting a wall in terms of revenue from AI data centers. In short, the AI sky is falling.

So in all this bad news, let’s take stock in what and where AI will succeed - and fail.

Where AI Wins

AI is set to make a big impact in customer service. It can handle repetitive tasks like answering common questions, tracking orders, or resolving basic issues. This helps companies save time and resources while giving customers quicker responses. As AI tools get better at understanding natural language, the quality of interactions will improve, leading to more satisfied customers.

When it comes to service scaling, AI allows businesses to grow without needing a proportional increase in human labor. Automated systems can manage a larger volume of tasks at once, whether that’s answering customer inquiries or handling data processing. AI can help companies reach more people with fewer resources, making it easier to expand services in new markets or across different time zones.

In logistics, AI improves efficiency by optimizing routes, tracking shipments, and predicting delays. This can reduce fuel costs, delivery times, and overall operating expenses. AI can also analyze supply chain data to spot potential issues before they become problems, helping companies manage inventory more effectively and avoid disruptions. By streamlining these processes, AI enhances reliability and speeds up the flow of goods.

In short, AI wins when it replaces jobs humans don’t want to do. This may eventually end up with robotics that will pick crops and drive trucks, but until then, to find a winner in the AI space look for companies that are allowing difficult-to-staff businesses to scale.

Where AI Loses

AI will fail in art. AI is likely to struggle with creative projects because creativity often involves intuition, emotion, and a deep understanding of culture and context. While AI can generate art or music based on patterns, it lacks the ability to create something truly original or meaningful in the way a human can. The nuances of personal expression, subtle themes, and unique perspectives are difficult for AI to capture, making it less suited for projects that require deep creativity.

In terms of interpersonal relationship building, AI falls short because it lacks genuine empathy and emotional intelligence. While AI can simulate conversational responses and even analyze emotional cues, it doesn't truly understand human emotions. Relationships are built on trust, shared experiences, and emotional depth—areas where AI simply cannot compete. People often value the human touch, which involves unpredictability and a personal connection, something AI can’t replicate. Don’t expect an AI to become your matchmaker or - even worse - go on AI dates for you in order to find potential mates or employers.

Human simulation is another area where AI is likely to fail. Despite advances in natural language processing and machine learning, AI can't fully simulate the complexities of human behavior. Human actions are influenced by a combination of emotions, memories, and unique experiences, which AI can’t authentically recreate. AI models tend to rely on data patterns and probabilities, which makes their interactions feel artificial and predictable, falling short of truly mimicking the richness of human nature. You’ll never have an AI best friend, no matter how hard you try.

As the old joke goes, we invented AI to do all the things we don’t want to do - plan, analyze, code - and now it’s doing all the things we want to do - write, design, create. That’s about to flip… and it’s about time.