What If AI Could Make Us More Human?

At the 2025 Resnick Aspen Action Forum, Dar Vanderbeck shared the founding belief of the Aspen Institute - a belief about the power of dialogue to heal our world. Leaders this July from every corner of the globe were treated to inspiration, reflection, community and conversation about leading with moral clarity, conviction, curiosity and courage.

Dar urged us to be in dialogue - with each other across our differences -- and also with our past. “Each generation's task,” she quoted from Todd Breyfogle, “is to assess what we have inherited” (where we are and how we got here) so we can creatively and critically “imagine the future.” Dar challenged the leaders at the Forum, from across sectors, countries and generations to imagine our collective future.

What World Have We Inherited as Leaders?

Let’s look at a few snapshots of life and work in America today.

• We are spending more time alone. In The Atlantic’s article “The Anti-Social Century,” Derek Thompson states that the share of U.S. adults having dinner or drinks with friends on any given night has declined by more than 30 percent in the past 20 years. Female pet owners spend more time actively engaged with their pet than face-to-face with friends. Of all restaurant traffic in 2023, 74% came from take-out and delivery.

• Technology is causing us harm. In his book, “The Anxious Generation” Jonathan Haidt shares that the rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm for adolescents have more than doubled since the advent of the smartphone in 2010-2013. The average citizen switches tasks on a computer every 40 seconds, and it takes them 23 minutes to regain focus. (Mark, 2023) A Microsoft study showed human attention spans have declined to just 8 seconds, which is shorter than a goldfish. (Microsoft Canada, 2015)

• Work is leaving us fried, not fulfilled. A 2024 SHRM study shows that 44 percent of surveyed U.S. employees felt burned out at work and 51 percent felt “used up” at the end of the workday. Gen Z and young millennials are hitting peak burnout at the age of 25, seventeen years earlier than older generations (The Information Guys, 2025). Leaders we serve at Leading Elephants tell us how much they crave even a few hours in their weeks to exhale, truly think and talk about the things that matter

"Technology is not asking us to become more like machines. It is asking us to remember we are not."

— Maria Popova

What If AI Could Make Us More Human?

Nearly a century ago, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that advances in technology would usher in a 15-hour workweek. How many people do you know that are basking in a life of leisure?

What if we approached this technological innovation with a fresh lens? Early studies from Stanford and MIT show AI is already accelerating productivity for leaders by 40-66%. What if AI could finally deliver on the dream of spaciousness —not just to do more, but to free us to BE more human?

We hosted a “drop-in” (pop-up) conversation at the 2025 Aspen Action Forum on “Being More Human in the Age of AI". Seventy participants registered to join us to discuss three questions:

✨ First, What Do You Long For?

In other words, what world have we inherited?

Worldwide leaders across medicine, education, the tech sector, state government and media talked together about the state of being human in 2025 and what has been lost. We heard parents speak painfully about longing for connection with their teens, but finding themselves unable to compete with their screens. A CEO told us that he wore brightly colored sneakers for an excuse to start conversations with strangers. A young leader shared that her company did team meetings - in the same building - but all from their zoom screens. She yearned to talk with another human live.

✨ Then How Might AI Help us Be More Human?

We are in a unique moment in history. AI is like an ocean that we will soon be swimming in, but thus far it is lapping onto the shore of our lives. If this technology will in fact change everything, how can we use it consciously to change us for good? (We gave participants space to discuss both how the technology can directly benefit humans but also ways to spend time freed up from day to day tasks “the AI dividend”.)

Leaders talked about ways that AI is already creating a more equitable and caring world. Educators in rural communities used AI to create 8th grade science lessons, then translated them for English Language Learners. Doctors shared that families who used to wait two weeks for the results of an x-ray now get AI-enabled ultrasound results in 5 minutes. One group had a thoughtful conversation about how AI could unlock for us a deeper understanding of each other - helping us understand other across cultures, disabilities, neurodiversity and languages.

One person dreamed about how driverless rental cars will make the 4 hour trip from Denver to Aspen one of endless possibilities! Another participant dreamed of AI giving them 2 hours to exercise every day, along with an AI-tailored personal fitness plan. An education leader hoped to step away from busyness and bring their heart and soul back into their work.

Many recognized, however, that our economic construct today is to equate time with money. What would it take for us to leverage the hours freed up by increased productivity and repurpose them for human things like deep thinking, play, innovation and collaboration? The participants imagined a world no longer under the mantra of “more, better, faster!”

✨ Finally, How Might You Lead on Both Humanity and Technology?

We have examined where we are, and what we imagined for our futures. There is so much we don’t know yet. But AI is here; and we as leaders are at the helm. How will we lead with humanity in our sights?

As these leaders from across the globe - China to Africa to Central America - stayed in dialogue together, three beautiful ideas emerged:

1. Humility is the trait most needed by leaders at this moment. Most of us are not technologists predicting the future of AI. We will have to be OK learning (imperfectly) together.

2. Wisdom is the goal - for ourselves and our organizations. AI will enable us to have more information at our fingertips than ever before - from ancient wisdom to the words of far-flung thinkers. But we must not mistake information (data) for wisdom-- the ability to apply knowledge-- to make sound decisions in complex, uncertain situations.

"We live in a world awash with information, but we seem to face a growing scarcity of wisdom. And what's worse, we confuse the two."

— Maria Popova

3. Dialogue is the path - two “ex-educators” asked how we should now teach our young people to join a workforce we can’t yet imagine. They realized the core skill of dialogue is the answer to so much of what we yearn for - relationships, connection and ultimately wisdom. We don’t “know” something by reading it off of Chat GPT. We know it when we contemplate it, grapple with it, argue for and against it and compare your point of view to mine.

The accumulation of “wisdom,” the kind that we need in today’s world, the one that will set our compass toward humanity - will take dialogue. It will take dialogue between the young person on AI with a world of information at their fingertips, and the person with decades of lived experience that AI cannot express. It will take dialogue across differences. It will take dialogue to grapple with what values we will hold as our individual and collective foundations as we make decisions in this new era.

"A great storyteller is the kindly captain who... points its nose in the direction of horizons and worlds chosen with unflinching idealism and integrity; who brings us somewhat closer to the answer of that grand question: Why are we here?"

— Maria Popova

The leaders at Aspen reminded us that we are living through a pivotal moment. The question isn't whether AI will change everything—it will. The question is whether we'll use this moment to become more fully human.

What if AI doesn't replace our humanity, but finally gives us permission to reclaim it?

This conversation is just beginning. At Leading Elephants, we're committed to helping leaders navigate this with the head, heart, and backbone needed to build organizations where both humans and technology serve our deepest values.

The future is being written now. Let's write it together.