10/01/2026
What AI Can't Fake: The Value of Human Connections
There's a stat we can’t stop thinking about: a recent survey found half of Gen Z have unfollowed, muted, or blocked an account the second they suspected the content was AI generated. Another found that people trust something more, almost automatically, the moment they know a real person made it, regardless of what the thing actually is.
That's a strange thing to sit with when you've spent the past few years in boardrooms and client meetings where everyone is racing to figure out how AI fits into the workflow and making big promises about how it's going to change everything.
Maybe it will. We're not here to referee that conversation.
But a lot of people are watching this shift feeling scared, or annoyed, or both. And more than anything, they're hungry to feel like the people leading them still see the value in what they bring simply by being human.
That is something live events are uniquely great at.
So how do you design for it?
• Let the audience actually change what happens. Ask a question, take a live poll, solicit an idea—and then use the answer later in the show. Not as decorative “engagement.” Let something they did genuinely affect what happens next.
• Build something that belongs specifically to this group. Bring back the ridiculous quote from yesterday's breakout. Turn the sales team's inside joke into a running bit. Reference the thing everybody at the company knows but nobody outside the event possibly could.
• Create moments you couldn't reproduce on command. Put leaders in a game. Give a team an unexpected challenge. Let somebody bomb spectacularly at a blind taste test. Make space for the laugh, the groan, the weird answer, the spontaneous standing ovation—the reaction nobody planned.
We usually talk about FOMO: the fear of being on the outside looking in. But flip it around. For the people who were there, that same experience creates something much more valuable: belonging.
Because that's the opportunity: the feeling of I was there. I was part of that.
Use the tools where they earn their keep. But protect the parts that are unmistakably, imperfectly human.
Because when people feel connected to the room—and to each other—they’re more open to what you brought them there to hear. The strategy. The initiative. The big goal for the year. Whatever comes next.
Connect with the humans first. Then you have a much better shot at moving them together.
Article written by Creative Director, Anneliese Toft.
