Harnessing AI Without Losing Our Human Edge

by Jerome D. Ryans, President & CEO, Tampa Housing Authority

Everywhere you turn-boardrooms, breakrooms, industry conferences-people are talking about artificial intelligence. As leaders, we must take an active role in shaping the conversation. This begins with learning about AI, not avoiding it, and determining how to apply it in ways that advance our mission with purpose and integrity.

Leaders, we must be sensitive to our people's concerns about how AI may change or eliminate their role. It is time to listen and coach. Those who embrace it and apply it meaningfully to enhance their contributions will have on AI a tool to advance their careers. Those who resist it will get behind. We must lead the way in helping our teams learn ways in which AI can increase productivity and quality in our organizations.

AI offers undeniable advantages. It can polish language, accelerate creative processes like ideation, speed up research, handle repetitive tasks, and streamline countless workflows. These capabilities free up our time and resources for the work that matters most-strategic thinking, decision-making, and human connection. These advantages require responsibility.

We must ensure AI is used with guardrails-ethical boundaries and a commitment to quality. The goal is to enhance our work, not replace what makes it uniquely ours. Your voice, your perspective, and your creativity are irreplaceable assets. They cannot be replicated by any algorithm. AI should support and amplify those qualities, never override them.

Authenticity holds particular importance in this discussion. AI will not nurture human connections. In an era of chatbots and automated systems, many companies now stand out by offering real people on the other end of their customer service lines-because clients crave that human touch. Human warmth cannot be replicated by technology.

Strategic use of AI allows us to remove the drudgery from work, optimize processes, and free our teams to focus on the aspects of our business that require judgment, empathy, and creativity. Preserving the humanity in our work ensures that what we do remains unique, unrepeatable, and, yes, delightfully unpredictable.

AI is here to stay. The challenge before us is to use it in ways that strengthen-not dilute-the heart of our mission.