AI Will Never Replace This One Thing, 6 Business Leaders Warn
Six business leaders explain the human skills that no algorithm can master — and why these abilities will become your biggest competitive advantage.
This story appears in the January 2026 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Over the past year, we’ve all heard plenty about the jobs that will be lost to artificial intelligence. And most of us have experienced some of the incredible things the technology can do. But often, the more that we experiment with AI in our day-to-day work, the more it becomes clear what tasks you need a capable human being to do. So here, we asked six leaders what parts of their operations they never plan on outsourcing to AI.
1. For sales, you need someone with high EQ in the room.
“The sales process has been automated in some productive ways, but I’ve had situations where something has gone wrong — and one of the unique attributes of a living, breathing person is the ability to read a room when things aren’t going well. People on the other side are often making decisions based on the emotions caused by the problem. Effective sales and partnership leaders need high EQ and a multisensory intuition that simply cannot be automated. I hope they also know how to use AI—I certainly do—but I can’t trust software with my livelihood or to protect my brand.” — Ari Bloom, founder and CEO, A-Frame Brands
2. When ‘selling a feeling,’ intuition is irreplaceable.
“AI should be used in every facet of your business, full stop. My company makes distinctive laundry fragrances, and AI helps us analyze market trends and consumer preferences by understanding our key differentiators, how best to position our scents, and even when to release. But the “magic” happens in details where human judgment is irreplaceable. We work with a principal perfumer with over 30 years of experience, and we rely on her expertise and intuition. Scent is deeply personal and emotional. AI can predict trends, but our customers aren’t just buying detergent. They’re buying a feeling. AI cannot replicate that intuition…yet.” — Robert Cardiff, cofounder and COO, Laundry Sauce
Related: Why Your AI Strategy Will Fail Without the Right Talent in Place
3. For customer support, you can’t automate true compassion.
“As CEO, I personally answer most of the technical support emails from our 10 million users—which surprises people. But here’s why I’ll never automate this: We’re a wine discovery and management platform, and when someone writes in panicked because their computer crashed, and they think they’ve lost 15 years of cellar records, they don’t want a chatbot. They want someone who understands that their 1982 Bordeaux isn’t just an inventory item; it’s the bottle they’ve been saving for their daughter’s wedding. The gratitude in those moments is immense.” — Eric LeVine, founder and CEO, CellarTracker
4. Human connection is the ultimate closer.
“The word ‘always’ is dangerous in technology. Still, there’s one area I believe will remain human for the foreseeable future: closing deals. Whether it’s hiring great talent, forming a partnership, or raising capital, those moments hinge on trust, vision, and a leap of faith. As a biotech founder, brilliant scientists have left academia to join us not because of the compensation package, but because they felt inspired by our mission and trusted me and my cofounders to lead. That emotional connection — the moment when someone decides to bet on you—is not something you can outsource to an algorithm. It is inherently human.” — Micha Breakstone, cofounder and CEO, Cellular Intelligence
5. For visuals, AI can’t replicate spontaneity or taste.
“AI can generate visuals, but it can’t create the sparks you get on set—the laughter between takes, the way music changes a shot, the energy of a first reaction. Those unrepeatable moments are what people buy into, and emotion drives commerce. As content gets shorter-lived and disposable, AI helps with volume, but taste is still human. That’s why ‘prompt engineering’ is the new creative direction: the same producers, directors, and photographers like me, who once ran shoots, are now running prompts — building campaigns from their desks at 10 times the speed and one-tenth of the price. The human eye hasn’t gone away, and in the right seat, it’s leveling the playing field for smaller businesses.” — Hannah McGough, chief marketing officer, Blank Beauty
6. There’s no company culture without human values.
“Every company has a culture and set of values, however intentional or unintentional. Those are a critical part of doing excellent, meaningful work with team members who build each other up. So people are a vital part of onboarding and building psychological safety. Early in our employee onboarding, we invite a group of team members together to share their stories of what it means to each of them to work here. There’s no way we’d replace showing up for a new team member and having those conversations together.” — Noah Kaplan, CEO, Loyalsnap
Related: Bias Isn’t Always Bad — Here’s How It Can Protect You From Making Dangerous AI-Driven Decisions
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Over the past year, we’ve all heard plenty about the jobs that will be lost to artificial intelligence. And most of us have experienced some of the incredible things the technology can do. But often, the more that we experiment with AI in our day-to-day work, the more it becomes clear what tasks you need a capable human being to do. So here, we asked six leaders what parts of their operations they never plan on outsourcing to AI.
1. For sales, you need someone with high EQ in the room.
“The sales process has been automated in some productive ways, but I’ve had situations where something has gone wrong — and one of the unique attributes of a living, breathing person is the ability to read a room when things aren’t going well. People on the other side are often making decisions based on the emotions caused by the problem. Effective sales and partnership leaders need high EQ and a multisensory intuition that simply cannot be automated. I hope they also know how to use AI—I certainly do—but I can’t trust software with my livelihood or to protect my brand.” — Ari Bloom, founder and CEO, A-Frame Brands
2. When ‘selling a feeling,’ intuition is irreplaceable.
“AI should be used in every facet of your business, full stop. My company makes distinctive laundry fragrances, and AI helps us analyze market trends and consumer preferences by understanding our key differentiators, how best to position our scents, and even when to release. But the “magic” happens in details where human judgment is irreplaceable. We work with a principal perfumer with over 30 years of experience, and we rely on her expertise and intuition. Scent is deeply personal and emotional. AI can predict trends, but our customers aren’t just buying detergent. They’re buying a feeling. AI cannot replicate that intuition…yet.” — Robert Cardiff, cofounder and COO, Laundry Sauce
