A Day of Human Connections

Friends,

I've been thinking a lot about where we're headed with AI.

Last week, while wandering through Amsterdam, I found myself caught in that peculiar space between technological advancement and human connection. The city's narrow streets and canal-side cafés provided the perfect backdrop for what would become a day of unexpected encounters and revelations about how we're integrating AI into our daily lives and where its limitations become most apparent.

The Joy of Strangers

There's something uniquely liberating about conversations with strangers. Without the weight of shared history or future expectations, these exchanges often reach surprising depths with remarkable speed.

My day began with meeting a brand strategist whose morning had gone spectacularly wrong—she'd missed her train to work, in Brussels, a mishap that would have sent most of us spiraling into frustration.

"It happens more often than I'd like to admit," she confessed with unexpected cheerfulness, her laptop balanced precariously on her knees as we shared a bench near the Jordaan district. What caught my attention wasn't her resilience but what flashed across her screen: she was using ChatGPT to synthesise client meeting notes, transforming scattered thoughts into coherent strategies.

"It's changed how I process information," she explained. "I used to spend hours organising my thoughts after client meetings. Now I feed everything into GPT and ask it to identify patterns I might have missed." Her workflow had been fundamentally transformed, not by replacing her expertise but by augmenting her ability to extract meaning from chaos.

The Augmented Reality Frontier

Later that afternoon, I stumbled upon an eyewear shop showcasing AR glasses. Most models were already sold out, with only display units available for trying on. As I slipped a pair over my eyes, the shop assistant explained how they overlay digital information onto the physical world.

"If we've reached this level of AR integration already," I remarked, "imagine where we'll be in five years."

The experience was simultaneously thrilling and disorienting—the digital overlays weren't perfect, occasionally jittering when I moved too quickly, but the potential was undeniable. We're standing at the edge of a world where the boundary between digital and physical continues to blur (literally), not just in specialised contexts but in our everyday experiences - think riding a bike to work but without your phone or watch.

The Next Generation's Relationship with AI

My final encounter was with a young lady in a hat shop, she was about to wrap her business master's degree and start a brand internship working at Heineken. Over a hilarious trying on of hats, she shared her uncertainty about her career path with refreshing honesty.

"I'm not entirely sure what I want to do yet," she admitted, "but this internship is a start to help me figure it out."

When our conversation turned to AI, I asked if she was using any advanced tools in her work. Her response was telling: "Just ChatGPT, really. Nothing fancy." The casualness with which she mentioned it highlighted how quickly these tools have normalised for younger professionals, but also the lack of knowledge about the quirks of other LLMs.

What would have seemed like science fiction during my early career was now just another item in her toolkit, no more remarkable than spreadsheets or presentation software.

The Paradox of Technological Advancement

Reflecting on these encounters, I realised something that feels increasingly important in my AI-saturated landscape: I'm part of a relatively small cohort actively using AI to outsource portions of my work, and an even smaller group experimenting with the raw APIs to build custom solutions. Despite the hype and investment pouring into artificial intelligence, most people's engagement remains surface-level—if they engage at all.

But here's the paradox that struck me most profoundly: despite having access to increasingly sophisticated technology, the most meaningful moments of my day came from those unmediated human connections. No AI intermediaries, no digital interfaces—just curiosity-driven conversations with strangers who briefly shared their stories with me.

For me, there's something powerful in that realisation. As we race toward an increasingly augmented future, perhaps the most valuable experiences will remain those that technology can't replicate: the spontaneous exchange of ideas, the vulnerability of sharing uncertainties, and the simple joy of connecting with another person without algorithmic assistance.

The Dutch have a concept called "gezelligheid"—a term that resists precise translation but encompasses warmth, cosiness, and togetherness. It's telling that such a technologically advanced society still places such high value on these fundamentally human experiences. Perhaps that's the balance we should all strive for: embracing technological advancement while preserving spaces for unmediated human connection.

When I got on the flight on Sunday morning and watched us go wheels up over the Netherlands

I couldn't help but smile at the irony. I'd spent months exploring cutting-edge AI capabilities, yet my most memorable experiences came from the oldest technology of all—conversation.

In our rush to build increasingly sophisticated digital tools, we might do well to remember that sometimes, the most profound innovations aren't technological at all, but rather new ways of connecting with each other.

What I'm pondering...

Here's what I'm curious about: In your work, what's the balance between technological augmentation and human connection? Have you found yourself relying more on AI tools while simultaneously craving more meaningful human interactions?

Hit reply – I'd love to hear about your experiences navigating this paradox.

Until next time, Viraj

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