When President Trump recently urged tech leaders to “win the AI race,” the business world responded with the usual surge of urgency, pressure, investment, and anxiety. Business and marketing leaders are already operating inside a constant mandate to drive growth, do more with less, and deliver results at a speed most of us never imagined when we first started in this industry.
But in today’s saturated, competitive, and fragmented market, direction matters more than acceleration.
Marketing and revenue leaders face the same challenges every day: generating high-quality leads, personalizing at scale, building a strong data foundation, and proving ROI while budgets shrink. Analyst research consistently points to data quality, lead relevance, and attribution clarity as persistent obstacles. These are areas where AI can help, but only if we stop treating it like a race to be won and start treating it like a tool that requires mastery.
AI Challenges Judgment, It Doesn’t Replace It.
AI has changed how leaders gather information, analyze options, and prepare for decisions. When my car received what my mechanic called a “death sentence,” AI helped me compare models and understand costs. But it couldn’t judge sincerity, interpret values, or assess whether a dealership earned my trust.
McDonald’s learned this the hard way when its AI-powered drive-thru system produced so many errors— misheard accents, wrong orders, inconsistent logic— that it had to be shut down. The technology was fast, but not reliable, and certainly not trust-building.
In demand generation, the pattern is the same. AI can surface insights, but humans create alignment. AI can accelerate workflows, but humans build trust. AI may bring buyers to the door, but people determine whether they walk through it. When leaders forget that, technology stops being an advantage and becomes a liability.
The Art + Science Equation Is Shifting—But Art Still Matters
Demand gen has always lived at the intersection of art and science. AI makes the science faster and sharper because it’s good at segmenting audiences, predicting intent, building lists, and analyzing signals at massive scale. But the art—the creative and intuitive side—is becoming even more important. AI responds to prompts, which require intuition, context, and imagination. You can’t automate strategic instinct or outsource understanding of what motivates a buyer.
It’s no surprise then that IBM research shows that the biggest barrier to AI success isn’t technology but the human skill required to guide it. Accenture’s analysis confirms this: the companies outperforming with AI are those investing equally in their people. They treat AI not as the intelligence, but as the amplifier.
At my company, we view AI as another team member— spyrakotone that needs training, strong inputs, and guardrails. Creativity, empathy, and critical thinking bring the technology to life. They also prevent leaders from using AI for validation instead of challenge, which is where many organizations stumble.
AI Improves Speed. Only People Improve Trust
Across every brand we support, one truth remains constant: trust is still the currency of every buying decision. Harvard Business Review has shown that trust and transparency now outweigh price and features in B2B buying. And trust cannot be automated, accelerated, or delegated to a model. AI can make your demand gen smarter, but only people make it meaningful.
This is why we must invest relentlessly in human capability from foundational sales skills to advanced communication, leadership, listening, and problem-solving. Humans share a defining trait: curiosity. They want to grow. They want tools that make them sharper. AI accelerates that growth, but it doesn’t replace it.
Where AI Excels—And Where It Doesn’t
AI shines in work that requires scale, speed, and precision. It analyzes datasets in seconds, scores intent consistently, streamlines workflows, and reveals patterns humans cannot see. But AI cannot sense hesitation, read a room, interpret tone, or navigate the emotional and ethical nuances of a buyer conversation. It cannot build rapport or understand the signals that live between the data points.
Accenture’s recent AI investments back this up: the companies succeeding with AI aren’t the most automated; they are the ones pairing automation with human insight, the kind that can’t be modeled. The better we understand these boundaries, the more intentionally we can design demand gen systems that leverage both human and machine advantages.
One of the greatest risks in AI adoption is the belief that efficiency equals replacement. That mindset is backward. AI should elevate people, not shrink teams, and enhance expertise, not eliminate it.
Humans are uniquely motivated to learn and master new skills. They want to become better at sales intelligence, CX, communication, and strategy. When leaders position AI as a threat, they weaken that motivation. Positioning AI as an accelerator unlocks it.
When my teams meet with clients, we make it clear: we’re not here to be a vendor. We’re here to be a partner. Partners focus on outcomes, share accountability, and speak up when something doesn’t feel right. Responsible innovation requires the same mindset—honesty about what AI can do, clarity about what it cannot, and discipline in ensuring technology supports the buyer experience rather than shortcuts it. Our brand and relationships depend on that discipline.
Winning the AI Race Requires Winning the Human One
If the national mindset is focused on outperforming competitors in the AI race, business leaders need to ask a different question: What does it mean to win the human one? For me, it means:
- Building teams that are empowered, not replaced.
- Prioritizing trust alongside technology.
- Designing buyer journeys where AI supports, not substitutes for, the human touch.
- Ensuring innovation strengthens connection rather than weakening it.
- Developing people as rigorously as we develop models.
- Keeping curiosity, empathy, and integrity at the center.
AI will transform demand generation. But people will define it. Machines may get faster, but humans will always be the reason buyers say yes. The companies that understand that balance will be the ones that grow, regardless of how fast the race moves.
Vince Barsolo is Chief Executive Officer of Televerde, a global B2B marketing and sales solutions company. He leads sustainable growth, operational excellence, and global expansion, bringing deep institutional knowledge, a strategic mindset, and a passion for purpose-driven performance across clients worldwide and evolving markets.
