Before You Ask AI, Ask a Human

The Hidden Danger of AI Productivity

What if AI helps you work twice as fast, but makes your organisation half as innovative?

We have been told that AI will transform the workplace by helping us work faster, smarter and more efficiently.

But a recent report in The Straits Times, featuring researchers from INSEAD and Google DeepMind, raises a disturbing possibility:

AI may boost individual productivity while undermining workplace innovation.

The reason is surprisingly simple.

We are becoming more self-sufficient, but less connected to one another.

Martin Gonzalez, head of organisational AI research at Google DeepMind, describes a phenomenon called the “self-sufficiency spiral.”

Instead of asking colleagues for advice, employees increasingly turn to AI.

Why wait for your manager when ChatGPT can answer immediately?
Why brainstorm with colleagues when AI can generate 20 ideas in seconds?
Why risk disagreements when AI is always available and rarely makes you feel uncomfortable?

At first, this seems wonderful.

Employees become more independent. Work gets done faster. Productivity improves.

But something valuable begins to disappear.

The conversations, disagreements and human interactions that make organisations creative.

Innovation rarely comes from everyone thinking alike. It often emerges when people with different experiences challenge one another.

INSEAD researchers also warned that AI-assisted teams could converge on similar ideas, reducing the diversity of thinking.

Imagine 100 employees using AI to generate business proposals.

They might produce 100 polished presentations, but how many genuinely different ideas?

We may be producing more answers while asking fewer original questions.

This is where I believe Love Intelligence (LQ) becomes even more important in the AI era.

AI can generate ideas, analyse information and automate tasks.

But organisations still need people who genuinely care, dare to challenge and connect with one another.

My LQ framework has three simple principles:

1. Care: Understand People, Not Just Information

AI can tell a manager what employees should do. But does the manager understand what employees are experiencing?

Care means listening, noticing concerns and understanding needs that may never appear in an AI-generated report.

2. Courage: Challenge AI and Each Other

Innovation requires the courage to disagree. When AI produces a convincing recommendation, do we accept it immediately?

Or do we ask, "What if AI is wrong? What are we missing?"

A courageous employee challenges assumptions. A courageous leader welcomes disagreement.

3. Connection: Create Together, Not Just Work Alone

AI connects us to information.

LQ connects us to people.

A casual conversation, a disagreement over lunch or a colleague sharing an unexpected experience may spark an idea that no individual would have discovered alone.

AI can make individuals more productive. LQ can make teams more innovative.

The biggest mistake is measuring AI success purely by hours saved, tasks completed or costs reduced.

What happens to the time saved?

If employees use it only to produce more individual work, the organisation may become efficient but less creative.

Instead, use AI to remove repetitive work and free people to collaborate, experiment and build relationships.

Don't let AI replace the very human interactions that make innovation possible.

The future does not belong simply to those who use AI most.

It belongs to those who combine AI's capabilities with human judgment, imagination and Love Intelligence.

So tomorrow, before asking AI another question, consider asking a colleague instead.

Listen to a different opinion. Challenge an assumption. Share an idea.

Use AI to become more capable. Use LQ to become more human.

Because in an age when artificial intelligence is abundant, genuine human connection may become our greatest competitive advantage.

Andy Ng — Author of Love Intelligence (LQ) and Why Smart Leaders Fail in the AI Era. Get 2 books at the price of one, at S$29.95, email to andythecoach@gmail.com or visit here https://asiatrainers.org/lqbook

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