Is art the one thing AI still can’t do?
A flawless AI image takes about four seconds to make now. Which tells you something important – flawless has stopped being valuable. If a machine can produce it instantly, it was never really the scarce thing. What’s scarce now is proof that a human made the decisions. The slightly imperfect brushstroke. The choice that doesn’t quite follow the rule. Evidence someone was actually there.
Collectors have started paying a premium for exactly that. Not despite AI, because of it. Once “perfect” became free, “provably human” became the thing worth having. This isn’t just an art-world story, it’s happening everywhere businesses meet their customers.
Forrester is predicting that a third of companies will damage both their customer acquisition and their retention this year, because they’ve pushed AI self-service into moments where the customer genuinely wanted a person and got a chatbot instead. The operational efficiency is real, and so is the cost. Customer experience is the lifeblood of any business and if that experience is appropriate whether or not it is Ai driven this will create a positive force. The problem is AI used as a blunt cost-cutting reflex. Rolled out because it’s cheaper, into a moment where the customer specifically wanted a human, without anyone stopping to ask if that was the right door to automate.
I want to be careful here, because I know people doing brilliant work with AI in customer contact, properly built, properly tested, matched deliberately to the moments where it actually helps rather than just where it’s cheaper. That’s not the problem. Some of the best implementations happening right now are exactly in that space, and they’re good precisely because someone sat down and worked out where speed beats a human voice and where it doesn’t, rather than assuming the answer is always speed.
Back-office AI is invisible to the customer and nobody minds. It’s the customer-facing stuff that has to earn its place, moment by moment, not by default.
Which brings me back to the painting on your wall, or the one in your office, or the one you’re thinking about buying as a gift. The value was never really in how flawless it looked. It’s in knowing someone stood there and made it, decision by decision, with all the risk that involves. That’s the part AI still can’t do. And going by what’s happening with customer trust right now, it might be the most valuable thing in your business too.
Please do reach out to me with any thoughts or feedback – andy@art-haus.co.uk.
