Finding Depth in the Noise

AI is great at finding patterns. But it can miss those rare, subtle insights that require context—and those are often the ones that make all the difference.

In a recent project I worked on with a client, we used AI to summarize peer reviews. AI effortlessly pulled out common themes. But it completely missed the one-off, deeply insightful comment that would’ve made the most significant impact.

That’s the thing about AI. It’s awesome for speed, but it’s not built for depth.

Humans? We’re built for depth. It’s the intuition we trust, the history we know, and the context we bring.

This happens all the time. During a customer interview at a previous company, we were discussing how we won their business. The customer was describing the evaluation process and casually mentioned, 'After evaluating 17 different applications, only ABC (a placeholder for the actual vendor) and your product really stood out. ABC had a huge customer base, but your user experience is what won us over in the end.' That passing remark about evaluating 17 vendors wasn’t the focal point for them, but I recognized its potential to shape our story.

We took that comment and made it the centerpiece of the case study, titling it 'Why [Company Name] Chose Us Out of 17 Vendors.' The rest of the interview, which was fairly standard and echoed content from other case studies, took a backseat to that insight. We built the narrative around how, in a crowded field of 17 competitors, we stood out on user experience. When sales reps used this case study, the title alone sparked meaningful conversations. Yet another example of the kind of subtle, yet powerful, insight that AI—focused on patterns and volume—would likely have overlooked.

The future isn’t about AI replacing humans. It’s about using AI to handle the bulk so we can focus on what’s really important. AI can do “good enough” all day long. But we weren’t built for “good enough.”

We were built to push beyond the minimum. To find the signal in the noise. When we use AI to handle the surface, it gives us the space to do what we do best: find the depth.