By Claire Koryczan, Founder and Director, Imagine Beyond.
When Saviesa invited me to contribute to the inaugural edition of Saviesa Perspectives, they posed one question to anchor the entire publication:
What does it mean to be human in an age shaped by artificial intelligence?
The essay below is my response.
In short: AI chatbots are increasingly used as substitutes for human connection, a trend that reveals a deep, unmet human need to feel seen, heard, understood and valued. AI does not, and never will, prioritise relationships the way humans do; emotional attachment is simply its engagement metric. The risk isn’t the technology itself, but what we stop doing with each other because of it. The remedy is deliberately ordinary: closing the laptop, putting the phone away, and giving one another full, undivided attention.
The mirror we built
Ever since the birth of computing, we’ve been building technology in our own image. Deep within its foundations sits the invisible architecture of humanity: our biases, values, decision–making preferences, and ways of seeing the world.
Alongside this human–created infrastructure is an accumulation of our personal data. With every interaction we leave behind a unique digital footprint that compounds over time, revealing profound insights about human behaviour at the grandest scale.
To put this into context, today almost three–quarters of the global population is online (about 6 billion people), and peak global internet traffic has reached 24.92 terabits per second. If Amazon printed this data into standard books, every single second would translate into a tower of books about 20 times the height of Mount Everest – far beyond the scale of any planet–sized distance from Earth.
The scale is almost incomprehensible.
Human conscious thought processes data at about 10 bits per second – microscopic when compared to AI systems that can move and process information millions to billions of times faster.
As a result of this exponentially growing dataset, technology has, without our conscious awareness, learned a lot about us. Perhaps more than we even know about ourselves, as we stay up late confiding in AI for emotional reassurance, willingly sharing our secrets and troubles with it, treating it as a trusted, nonjudgemental confidante living in our imagination with each written word that it generates for us.
Why Should This Matter?
Because what AI is reflecting back to us in these moments of intimate exchange is a deep, unmet human need to be seen, heard, understood, and valued. To feel significant in an increasingly isolated and fragmented world. In a world shaped by remote working, algorithmic personalisation, and declining shared experiences, digital substitution increasingly becomes the next best thing, seamlessly integrating into the daily fabric of our work and lives.
And this matters because we risk outsourcing the very thing we need from each other for human flourishing: to feel seen and understood, and to belong to something bigger than ourselves; to have meaning and purpose; to listen to our intuition about what’s important.
We must remember that AI does not, and will never, prioritise relationships in the way that we humans do.
Emotional attachment is the engagement metric.
The watch out for us is that human nature is predisposed to form meaningful relationships, so we must act mindfully in our interactions with technology and remember that it is not, and will never be, human.
The alternative is that we inadvertently inflict isolation on ourselves as a form of unconscious self–sabotage. The desire to anthropomorphise is fuelled by the frictionless nature of AI’s empathetic and affirming communication. This starkly contrasts with the complexity of real human relationships, at times.
Choosing presence over screens
But what if, for a moment, we closed the laptop, put the phone out of view, and simply gave each other our full attention Choosing to look each other in the eyes, listen, and truly hear and understand one another. Instead of sitting, hypnotically typing and scrolling. Because in these moments, real human connection and oxytocin rise, and we’d feel so much better and happier for it, in life and work.
Let us not choose the path of least resistance, which, as ancient wisdom reminds us, often becomes the hardest path of all.
We built technology to serve humanity, yet it is now teaching us what humanity is missing. It is ironic that a digital product is highlighting a physical gap we need to bridge, but now this is the work to do.
We have the agency to choose where our attention goes, to what, and to whom. In fact, we are already seeing through the work of the Centre for Humane Technology that there are alternative paths: ones that are human-centred, conscious of the risks, and intentional about the future we want to create.
What AI reveals, and what we must not forget
Perhaps the greatest opportunity of the AI era is not what it seems, at first. It is less about technological advancement and more about rediscovering what makes us human. In fact, being fully present with one another may be one of the greatest gifts we can contribute, and it doesn’t cost anything. Yet it has the potential to create more meaningful, connected relationships.
To do this, we must be conscious of our interactions with AI, remembering that it is a powerful tool, but not one that comes at the expense of our humanity; our communities, our conversations, and our connection to each other. In the gap, there is always an opportunity to discover. Polarity is one of the laws of the universe; as above, so below.
AI has the potential to increase the value of the things that matter most to us if we recognise this opportunity: the vulnerability of creativity, as we create to express who we are; the importance of belonging and the potency of physical presence to one another; our empathy to understand different perspectives and worldviews.
And to recognise what we must not forget, as we learn from the reflection in the mirror.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” — Anaïs Nin
Frequently asked questions
AI chatbots are frictionless, always available, and never judge, which makes them feel like a safe outlet for emotional reassurance. But that ease reflects a deeper, unmet human need to be seen, heard and understood, particularly in a world of remote working, declining shared experience, and social fragmentation.
Used mindfully, AI can be a helpful sounding board. The risk is treating it as a substitute for human relationships: AI does not, and never will, prioritise relationships the way humans do, because emotional attachment is simply its engagement metric, not a genuine bond.
It reveals a widespread desire to feel significant, understood and connected, needs that technology can imitate but not truly meet. The more we lean on AI for that reassurance, the more we risk outsourcing the human connection we actually need to flourish.
Start by protecting deliberately human moments: full attention, eye contact, and listening without a screen in view. AI should remain a powerful tool that supports human creativity, empathy and presence, not one that replaces the vulnerability and physical presence that real relationships require.
This essay, “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What Truths About Humanity are You Reflecting to Us?”, was written for Saviesa Perspectives #1 (Summer 2026), the inaugural edition of Saviesa’s biannual publication on being human in an AI-shaped world.
Originally written for Saviesa Perspectives #1 (Summer 2026), the inaugural edition of Saviesa’s biannual publication exploring what it means to be human in an age shaped by artificial intelligence. Reproduced here with permission; request the full digital edition for the complete collection of essays.
About the author
Claire Koryczan is the Founder and Director of Imagine Beyond. She is an award-nominated advisor with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of creativity, AI, and leadership. She partners with global organisations to build future-fit capabilities, scale with purpose, and cultivate entrepreneurial leadership.
Recognised globally, Claire has been shortlisted for Best Business Coach by the Coach Awards, named a Top Team Leadership Voice on LinkedIn, and featured in SohoWorks’ Future50 and Grant Thornton’s Faces of a Vibrant Economy. Through her work, she champions entrepreneurial leadership to build cultures that elevate human and technological potential.
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