AI VS. EI

In the past few weeks, I’ve sat in more than one meeting about “pathways,” college tracks, and the future of the kids we’re raising. Everyone talks about degrees, credentials, entrepreneurship, innovation. And I keep coming back to one uncomfortable thought:

We are starving the skill sets that actually keep the world running.

Where are the technicians? The electricians? The mechanics? The people who can fix the AC when it’s 98° and your house feels like a crockpot?
Somewhere along the way, we told an entire generation that hands-on work wasn’t “good enough,” while simultaneously convincing them they’ll all make $200K their first year owning a business.

Meanwhile… who’s actually going to do the work?

And now we’ve added another layer:

AI vs. EI.

AI can write your business plan.
AI can design your lesson plans.
AI can tell you how to repair an HVAC unit step-by-step.

But AI cannot look a human in the eye, read the room, feel the tension, soften the tone, or build trust across a table.

That’s Emotional Intelligence.
That’s humanity.
That’s not programmable.

Yesterday at lunch, our server, a college kid, maybe 21, walked up, made eye contact, smiled, acknowledged every person at the table, and spoke like we were actual humans instead of a task to complete.

I asked his age. He said 21.
I said, “Thank your momma. Seriously. This matters.”

Because it does.

In a world of screens, prompts, and digital shortcuts, the ability to connect, really connect, is becoming rare. And rare things become valuable.

AI can’t comfort someone who just lost everything.
AI can’t sit with grief.
AI can’t sense when a child is struggling but doesn’t have the words.
AI can’t replace the human nervous system calming another human nervous system.

We still need people who can show up.

And honestly? It scares me a little.

It feels like those decades of warnings about recycling, easy to ignore until suddenly you’re sipping from a soggy paper straw wondering how we got here.
Except this time, it’s not landfills we’re filling up… it’s the space where human connection used to live.

What happens when we’re old?
Who advocates for us?
Who fixes things?
Who cares for people instead of optimizing them?

I don’t have the answers. I just know this:

While the world races to automate everything, I’m doubling down on raising humans who can do the things machines never will; work with their hands, speak with confidence, show compassion, tolerate discomfort, and stay present in a real room with real people.

Because AI may change how we live…

But EI is what will determine whether we still feel alive while doing it.