We’ve never had more access to the world. Photos, video, livestreams — anything, instantly, at any time.

A recent family trip gave Jeff Corbin a new lens on AI — and the irreplaceable role communicators play in the digital workplace.

Off to Jeff! — Kim

Pop quiz ↘

I recently had the good fortune and opportunity to travel to Botswana on a safari to celebrate my mother’s 85th birthday. There was a lot of emotion surrounding this trip with my family, and until we were seated on the airplane, I wasn’t certain it would happen.

Just months earlier, my mother had fallen and broken her hip. She had undergone surgery for a serious heart condition. There was a period when none of us knew if she would be able to make the trip and whether we would be going.

Much of my work today and over the past 15+ years revolves around employee communications technology, the digital workplace, and now AI. I spend my days thinking about how technology can help people communicate, create, and be more productive. As I boarded the flight, I wasn’t thinking about this at all. I was thinking about family, uncertainty, and this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We live in a world where technology allows us to see and experience almost anything instantly. Yet as I settled into my seat for the long journey to Botswana, I couldn’t help but wonder whether we are experiencing less.

I found myself asking the question:

“Is this real?”

For me, the question was about my life, my family, and the wildlife I was about to experience. Until now, all of this was just a visual in my mind or on a screen. Here I was, about to embark on a 20+ hour flight to the other side of the world. It was a place that seemed impossibly far away and different, and yet there I was, on my way to Africa, for real.

What I didn’t realize was that over the next two weeks, I would find myself asking that same question again and again.

The first time came shortly after we arrived.

On our first evening game drive, our guide stopped the vehicle after sunset and told us he had a “surprise.” What could it be? He grabbed a spotlight, scanned the darkness, and suddenly there it was — a leopard emerging from the bush and marking its territory.

My reaction wasn't what I expected.

It wasn’t excitement. It was disbelief.

Was this real?

The next morning I woke to the sounds of elephants trumpeting, hippos grunting, and lions roaring in the distance. When I stepped outside, there were elephant tracks in the sand approaching the door to my room.

Again, I found myself asking the same question. “Is this real?”

Over the following days, the moments kept coming. A cheetah on the hunt. Lions protecting a fresh kill. Giraffes and zebras crossing in front of us. Sunrises and night skies so spectacular they seemed almost unreal.

Each experience left me with the same feeling: wonder.

Not the kind of wonder that comes from watching a documentary, but the kind that comes from being fully present in a moment that no screen can truly capture.

The most wonderful thing I saw

It wasn’t a lion, a leopard, or an elephant. It was my mother.

There she was . . . getting into safari vehicles . . . refusing to sit on the sidelines.

One afternoon I watched her carefully maneuver herself onto a boat, determined not to miss the experience despite every reason she could have given to stay behind. It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t easy. But she wasn’t interested in excuses. She was interested in experiencing and living.

Of all the remarkable things I witnessed during the trip, this was the most inspiring: watching my mother embrace the adventure reminded me how precious human experiences really are.

AI is changing how we work, but it’s not changing what makes us human.

Even with the best prompts, AI cannot feel the gratitude of watching your 85-year-old mother embrace an adventure that once seemed impossible. It cannot experience the silence that settles over a group waiting for a lion to emerge from the bush. It cannot appreciate the importance of time with family or the connections formed with strangers from entirely different backgrounds.

For those of us who work in communications and the digital workplace, AI presents an incredible opportunity. It can help us work smarter, create faster, and deliver more personalized experiences. But as AI takes on more of the routine, it makes our role more important: We’re the ones responsible for telling the stories that remind people what it means to be human.

Wonder. Gratitude. Resilience. Connection. Presence. These experiences are uniquely human. They cannot be optimized. As technology becomes more capable, our human experiences become more — not less — important.

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Tell me what you think. I love to be challenged (or validated 🙂). Reply to this email or send me a message on LinkedIn.

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