The AI paradox: why meetings are worth more now

Meetings are human accelerators

A machine writes the policy deck, sends the updates and checks the action list. But the moment somebody says "hold on, I see this differently from you" and a conversation starts that changes the whole direction? That's where a machine falls short. It only happens when people sit together and there's enough structure to have that conversation.

Meetings are the moments where you think together, decide together, set direction together. They're also the moments where you feel how an organisation works. Or doesn't. Where you notice whether there's trust. Whether anyone dares say the plan is wrong. Where you arrive together at an insight nobody would have had alone.

Broadcasting instead of collaborating

Most gatherings let that chance go. The form doesn't allow for it. An hour of watching slides and jolting awake at the closing "is that all clear?" isn't collaboration. It's broadcasting. A recorded video would do the job just as well, better even, because then you choose when to watch.

Afraid of robots, while running on autopilot ourselves

And there's the paradox. We worry that AI will replace people. At the same time we spend most of our shared hours on activities a machine does just as well: sharing information, running through updates, recording action points. But surely we have so much more to offer as people? The part that makes us human, and makes us successful together, is the part we bring the least.

Perhaps that also explains why the fear of AI sits so deep. We sense that in the moments that matter, we aren't working very humanly ourselves.

Right now, being together is worth more

Turn it around. Precisely because AI is taking over more and more tasks, the moments you spend together grow in value. The routine work disappears. What is left is the work only people do together: setting direction, building trust, arriving at a shared insight. That makes gatherings more important than ever.

Organisations that grasp this raise the bar. They go for meetings with real contact, and put engagement above attendance. And they carry it through everywhere. In meetings in a room, and all the more in meetings online. Don't settle for staring blankly at a screen full of square talking heads. Be curious, be critical, be creative. Try putting that on the agenda. A philosophical conversation. Feet on the desk. AI will handle the transcript.