“AI is coming.” We hear it everywhere—on podcasts, conference panels, webinars, social media posts, client conversations, and in almost every discussion about how businesses can grow, stay relevant, and adapt to an increasingly fast-moving world. 

What once sounded like a futuristic concept has quickly become part of our everyday business vocabulary. The phrase is repeated so often that it can almost start to feel ordinary, even though the speed and magnitude of the change behind it are anything but ordinary. 

In some ways, it reminds me of old King Kong movies, with crowds shouting that King Kong is coming—except this time, the crowd is made up of business owners, executives, advisors, marketers, professionals, and service providers all trying to understand what AI means for their companies, their clients, their teams, and the future of their industries.

And yes, AI is evolving quickly, and it will continue to play a larger and more central role in our personal and professional lives. It can help us draft simple emails (yes, we all know that your improved email articulation is due to the latest and greatest AI tool), summarize information, brainstorm ideas, build models, learn new skills, analyze data, and search for everything from business insights to a new restaurant recommendation. 

I recently read that some marketing companies are already shifting their focus from marketing for traditional Google searches to marketing for AI agents, because the way people look for information is changing in real time. That shift alone should get our attention. After all, when was the last time someone in your group asked you to “Google” something instead of asking a tool, an app, or an AI assistant to find the answer?

But as important as it is to understand what AI can do, it is equally important to understand what AI cannot replace. 

The AI Gap

AI cannot sit across from a client and have a thoughtful, nuanced conversation about the emotional impact of preparing to exit a company they spent their entire life building. AI cannot fully appreciate the history, pride, fear, uncertainty, and identity that may be tied to that decision. 

Smart professional service providers will absolutely use AI to build models more efficiently, organize information more quickly, and prepare better materials. But those models and materials still need to be interpreted, explained, and delivered with human judgment, context, experience, and empathy. 

When clients are considering a major transition, they need more than technically correct information. They need someone who listens carefully, understands the personal stakes, asks the right questions, and walks them through their options in a way that feels practical, grounded, and meaningful. AI can help us become more efficient and more nimble, but it is not a substitute for human connection for high stakes moments when trust and judgement reign supreme.

For example, AI cannot sense the tension in a room when a family is discussing the allocation of assets that a patriarch spent his entire life acquiring for the adult children and grandchildren sitting around the table. 

I have been in rooms where, on paper, the transaction works. 

The tax analysis works, the structure works, and the model produces the expected result. But real life rarely follows in line to what works on paper. 

Sometimes a property was acquired because one adult child loved a particular store nearby, or because a grandchild’s favorite restaurant made the location feel special to the family. 

Sometimes…oftentimes…an asset represents a memory, a relationship, a sacrifice, or a chapter in the family’s story that cannot be captured in a spreadsheet or a prompt. 

AI cannot read the room in those moments. 

It cannot sense when the conversation becomes tense, when someone is uncomfortable, or when the family history behind an asset matters just as much as the economics. 

Those are the moments where the strength of the advisor relationship becomes clear. 

Without that relationship, the client may simply hire an advisor to prepare the models, put the plan on paper, pay the fee, and move on. But when you are invited into the intimate family discussions surrounding wealth that has been accumulated over decades, that is where the true value of the trusted-advisor role emerges. 

We get to understand our clients’ personalities, their family dynamics, their desired portfolios, their goals for their immediate families, and their broader legacy objectives. Once we understand what truly motivates our clients, we can move beyond generic advice and help them make decisions that align with their values, priorities, and long-term goals.

The Future of Business

So let’s talk about what business in 2026 and beyond may actually look like. 

Business will still happen through conversations—whether those conversations take place in person, over a Teams call, at an industry event, during a client meeting, or in the informal moments before and after a formal presentation. 

Over time, many professionals will have access to similar AI-powered tools, templates, research platforms, and models. The tools themselves may become less of a differentiator because everyone will be able to use some version of them. 

The real differentiator will be the professional who can bring personality, charisma, practical experience, technical knowledge, and sound judgment into the conversation. 

It will be the person who can speak confidently without relying entirely on the latest AI-generated output and who can connect the technical answer to the client’s real-world goals in real time. Those are the professionals who will stand out.  Remember, we all like to work with people we like, that’s our common denominator.

The professionals who will thrive are the ones who can speak on a topic naturally because they have spent years in the trenches, working through complicated issues, learning from difficult fact patterns, and developing real perspectives. 

They will use AI as a tool to improve the way they serve clients—not as a replacement for the relationship itself. 

Unfortunately, clients are not going to remain loyal to firms or professionals who simply use AI to complete data entry faster, generate a deliverable, and then disappear until the next annual engagement comes around.

Efficiency matters, but efficiency alone is not enough. Clients want more than responsiveness. They want insight, judgment, and a sense that their advisors truly understand them… enough to anticipate their needs and offer tailored advising.

21st Century Advisors

During this critical time, it is important to be intentional about connecting and engaging with clients, referral partners, leaders, colleagues, and spheres of influence.

Share your expertise in real time, and let others experience how you think, communicate, and solve problems. 

People still want to connect with people—especially people they like, trust, and find dynamic. Sitting behind a desk and relying on AI will not create the same depth of relationship as showing up, listening, contributing, and building trust intentionally over time.

Even though your role within your company or profession may be evolving because of AI, the next frontier will not be defined by technology alone. 

It will be defined by the ability to combine technology with human interaction, professional judgment, and authentic relationship-building. 

AI may help us work faster, organize information better, and deliver more sophisticated analysis, but it will be the human element that separates one service provider from the next. 

The professionals who embrace AI while continuing to invest in relationships, communication, empathy, and expertise will be the ones who remain relevant, trusted, and valued in the years ahead.