Futureproof: AI, Empathy, and the Business of Thinking
By Adam Kleinberg
No panels. No slides. Just voices.
That’s the idea behind The Futureproof Project: get brilliant, bold minds around a dinner table and have the real conversations—the ones you won’t hear on stage. At our latest gathering in New York, co-hosted with our partners at XR during Advertising Week, we invited a curated group of brand leaders, marketers, strategists, and operators for a closed-door discussion on how AI is actually reshaping the work we do—not in theory, but in practice. We asked one question to kick things off:
“What are you afraid of?”
Fear is the catalyst. Not the enemy.
We did not hear a chorus of buzzwords or manufactured optimism. It was something deeper. Hard truths. Personal reflections. Strategic tension. And most importantly, shared fears.
- Fear that AI will make average work more average.
- Fear that entry-level jobs will disappear—and with them, the ability to “learn how to think.”
- Fear that brands are being eroded into transactional machines.
- Fear that efficiency has replaced empathy.
One guest described how AI bias can warp even the simplest creative intent. When they tried generating an image of a “friendly, approachable female career mentor,” the output came back as a woman “in the shortest skirt imaginable, legs parted.” The table erupted in disbelief—equal parts laughter and frustration.
Another recounted prompting a GenAI tool to create visuals for a men’s fragrance line—only to get back a feed full of over-muscled, hyper-masculine bodybuilder types. What was meant to be inclusive and aspirational had turned into a caricature of masculinity.
These weren’t theoretical risks or social-media anecdotes. They were real examples from marketers experimenting with AI in their day-to-day work—proof that bias isn’t an abstract ethical debate. It’s a design flaw that shows up in your creative output, your brand expression, and ultimately, your customer experience.
The point? Left unchecked, AI doesn’t elevate brands. It exposes them.
Empathy is the new efficiency.
There was a moment when someone challenged the entire framing of efficiency in AI conversations:
“Maybe we’re focused on the wrong ‘E.’”
Instead of wringing 20% cost savings from ad ops, what if we focused on making creative 50% more human? More relevant? More empathetic?
Because empathy doesn’t dilute performance. It is performance in an era where brand is often the only remaining moat. When everything else is automated, outsourced, or AI-generated—what’s left is how you make people feel.
You have to die before you get to heaven.
One of the most resonant moments came when Babs Rangaiah, CEO of the cc:babs executive coaching firm (and sometimes Traction consultant), shared an old Indian proverb:
“If you want to see heaven, you have to die first.”
It hit the table like a gong.
The takeaway: if you want to lead in this new world, you can’t just read about it. You have to live it. You can’t skip the discomfort. You have to go all-in. Experiment. Fail. Rethink. And yes, probably break a few rules along the way.
It’s not enough to delegate AI strategy. You have to get hands-on with the tools. Understand the implications. Know where the risks are. Know where the opportunities live.
Otherwise, someone else will—and they’ll be the ones writing the rules.
From personalization to purpose.
We talked about how performance and brand aren’t opposites. They’re co-dependent.
The real goal? Creative that adapts to the individual without eroding the brand. That means:
- Respecting brand integrity while customizing messaging.
- Building systems that support personalization at scale.
- Bridging the gap between performance metrics and human connection.
One insight shared by the team at Extreme Reach: more than 50% of creative assets at global brands never even get used. Not because they’re bad, but because the system is broken. AI isn’t just about creating more. It’s about using what we already have more effectively.
Traction CEO, Adam Kleinberg, observed that while a huge chunk of e-commerce will soon come in the form of AI agents talking to other AI agents, this makes branding even more of a priority. If a shopper doesn’t request a specific brand, the AI will just do their math using some formula of price, popularity and presence and recommend whatever comes out on top.
This is a leadership moment.
What came through loud and clear is that AI isn’t the story. Leadership is.
Some at the table have had freedom to experiment. Others were navigating legal and compliance bottlenecks. Some were already deploying GenAI into workflows. Others are fighting for budget. But everyone shared a desire to move from fear into action.
And that starts with asking better questions:
- Where are you wasting time and money today?
- Where is your creative process broken?
- Where are your workflows built to avoid risk instead of deliver impact?
What does your version of “heaven” look like?
The Back Nine.
Another powerful metaphor from Babs who described this stage of their career as “The Back Nine.”
The Front Nine was all about learning, climbing, adapting. The Back Nine is about leveraging all of that to create impact, not just efficiency. To shape what's next, not just survive what’s now.
And that’s what’s at stake. This isn’t just about AI. It’s about what kind of leader you want to be—one who protects the past, or one who builds the future.
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