It seems that, everywhere we turn, someone is reminding us that AI will change everything.
While that is a reasonable supposition, the entrepreneur plotting the optimal path to success is confronted with a choice: What tasks are best handled by AI, and what tasks are better handled by other means?
Business requires human interaction, and some businesses require a lot of human interaction. And those who excel are arguably the most adept at EI — emotional intelligence.
A balance between AI and EI is perhaps the ideal model in today’s business environment.
It’s an issue taken up at the most recent Circle of Creation event, held Thursday, May 29, at the link in Nocatee Town Center. The series, now in its second year, was designed for women looking to “level up” their lives and businesses.
About 30 attended the session, though originator Gurpreet Misra hopes to grow that number in future sessions. Misra is co-founder with her husband of the link and the Sapna Foundation, which initiated the Circle of Creation.
Those attending gained valuable insights into both AI and EI. While that is a theme throughout this year’s series, sales and branding were the session’s specific focuses.
Misra started things off, speaking about the essence of branding through the lens of entrepreneurship.
“Branding begins long before logos and color palettes,” she said. “It starts in the quiet, often unseen journey of an entrepreneur, where a vision is born, refined and protected. A clear point of view becomes your greatest differentiator in a crowded marketplace.”
She said true branding is about ensuring that one’s purpose is reflected in actions, decisions and interactions, consistently and authentically.
Toward this end, proficiency with EI — with its five components: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills — is critical to the human interaction portion of the business. AI can handle a great many tasks that used to require more people, but it cannot replace EI.
Other speakers included Tery Spataro, who demystified the AI agent; Lori Pugh, who delivered insights on personalizing sales with AI while remaining true to brand; and Parul Patel, who reviewed Amazon Go as a case study.
When Thursday’s session was finished, Misra heard from one of the attendees who praised the presentation as very timely and helpful. In fact, Misra has received much positive feedback since the series began.
The event was loaded with useful information, such as the importance of maintaining brand consistency amid a popular shift away from Google searches and toward ChatGPT, and how Google has made creation of AI agents more accessible with its Google Gems initiative.
Through Circle of Creation, Misra empowers businesswomen to understand AI but also to address it on their own terms.
“You are the command center,” she reminds her audience.
The next session in the series will be held June 25. The focus will be “Leadership & Emotional Intelligence + AI.”
