Article by: Mike York, COO
AI is everywhere. It’s writing emails, designing ads, suggesting Netflix shows you’ll never get through, and if you listen to enough LinkedIn posts, apparently reinventing everything.
But here’s the thing nobody wants to say out loud: AI still doesn’t understand people. Not really.
It can spot patterns, predict clicks, and optimize funnels, but when it comes to figuring out why someone impulse-bought a three-person kayak after an ugly breakup, it’s still as clueless as your CFO’s teenage son.
Let’s go beyond the buzzword and talk about what AI can’t do, and why real human understanding still wins every time.
AI Knows What Happened, Not What’s Happening
AI loves patterns. It sees data, it crunches data, it predicts more data. It’s like the overachiever in class who’s great at memorization but has zero life experience.
It can tell you that your customers buy more coffee on Mondays, but it can’t tell you they’re doing it because the Sunday Scaries hit harder when their boss posts “Happy Monday, team!” memes on Slack.
AI gives you trends. People give you the nuance of context. And context is what turns information into insight.
AI Can’t Detect a Vibe (And Vibes Run the World)
Humans make emotional decisions and then rationalize them later. Did you really need the freezer full of organ meat for the new diet you read about for your second-favorite cat? Likely not.
AI, on the other hand, makes rational predictions and then accidentally recommends you a blender after you Google “therapy.”
You can’t measure a vibe in a spreadsheet. You can’t teach an algorithm what “trust” feels like. And no model can detect the subtle human art of side-eyeing an ad and thinking, yeah, that’s not for me.
AI Doesn’t Know Why Your Customer’s Lying to You
Here’s a dirty little research secret: people lie in surveys. Constantly. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes because they don’t actually know what they want until they see it.
That’s why great research isn’t just about collecting data; it’s about decoding humans. The contradictions, the weirdness, the gap between “I care about sustainability” and “I just ordered overnight shipping for plastic straws.”
AI can’t see the hypocrisy. Humans can, and they can laugh about it too.
AI Doesn’t Feel Anything (and That’s a Problem)
Empathy isn’t a metric. It’s a muscle. And while AI can mimic tone and predict sentiment, it can’t feel it.
It doesn’t know the difference between a customer who’s mildly annoyed and one who’s about to rage-quit your brand forever. It just sees “negative feedback: 2 stars.”
Meanwhile, human researchers can hear tone, body language, and that sigh before someone says, “It’s fine,” which everyone knows means it’s absolutely for sure not fine.
AI Can’t Smell the Panic in the Room
Let’s be honest: half of great research is knowing when something’s off. It’s spotting that one respondent who’s just saying what they think you want to hear. It’s feeling the energy shift when someone mentions a competitor’s name. It’s noticing the awkward silence that screams louder than any data point.
AI doesn’t get awkward. It doesn’t get tension. It doesn’t get that one guy in the focus group who keeps calling your product “interesting.” (Translation: he hates it.)
That’s the stuff that actually matters, and it still takes a human to hear it.
AI Can’t Imagine the Future (Yet)
AI is brilliant at predicting what’s next, based on what’s already happened. But here’s the problem: innovation doesn’t come from the past.
If Henry Ford had used predictive analytics, he’d have doubled down on faster horses. If Netflix had trusted its 2005 algorithm, it would still be mailing DVDs of Love Actually.
AI can project the trend. Human curiosity creates the breakthrough.
AI Doesn’t Know What It’s Like to Be Human (Obviously)
Your customers are irrational, emotional, multi-tabbed, caffeine-powered, doomscrolling enigmas. They cry at TikToks. They boycott brands on Monday and order express delivery from them on Tuesday. They use toothpaste as face cream because of something they saw on Instagram.
AI can’t capture that chaos, and that’s exactly where insight lives.
Understanding people isn’t a formula. It’s an art. A messy, wonderful, coffee-fueled art.
The Last Word
AI is an absolutely incredible tool to have in your arsenal, but it’s not a mind reader. It’s a mirror. It reflects what’s already true, but it can’t tell you what’s coming next, or why people care.
The brands that win aren’t just the ones with the best data. They’re the ones with the best understanding, the ones who pair machine intelligence with human curiosity.
Because AI can tell you what’s trending. But only humans can tell you why it matters.
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SMARI is an award-winning Indiana-based market research consultancy that was founded in 1983 with the idea of guiding change and inspiring confidence. We are proud to work with SMEs as well as a variety of Fortune 500 brands. We are powered by our core values: integrity, community, perseverance, trust, passion, curiosity, and innovation. SMARI’s expertise includes full project scopes, including instrument design, sampling & fielding services, reporting & analysis in Healthcare, CPG, Retail, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, Financial Services industries, and beyond. Much has changed in our 40+ years, but our tagline and overarching mission remain the same—to guide change and inspire confidence. Start a conversation with us at www.SMARI.com.
