Are Human Experts Still Valuable?
This question is being considered by many clients and employers as the AI LLMs begin researching, planning, creating and serving up content and sales funnels for the B2C and B2B masses. They’re moving up the management ladder.
Business owners are beginning to see their full potential, to perhaps eliminate human worker cost entirely, or to augment the remaining staff — or conversely, to replace the key people in a company. Can anyone compete with an AI agent?
It’s no joke that some creators and strategists, even experienced talent, are concerned about their careers. It was said that only lower-level employees are replaceable by AI. Yet the ugly truth might be that anyone at any level in any department can and will be replaced by AI. It’s the promise of better results at lower cost — music to investor’s ears. In fact, could AI LLMs be trained to replace you with a digital copy of yourself?
Given rising unemployment and news hype about AI, we’re all having those dour thoughts about our value in business. And AI is evolving quickly beyond just administrative efficiency to encroach on strengths traditionally considered “human,” such as intuition, creativity, and emotional intelligence. It looks like it will learn and do whatever it needs to. Our politicians aren’t even aware themselves of the crisis forming.
Already, travel companies are using the very affordable ChatGPT to perform the creative or research work, which they plug into Hubspot to create ads, product pages or social and blog posts. Some are using AI travel itinerary planners that can book trips online.
Using one or two AI marketing software solutions, the marketing department might be reduced down to a few people. And that enables more funds to be invested in advertising campaigns (which Google and Facebook love) for direct lead generation.
But there’s the other side too.
Create Your Own Expert
A non-talented worker could ask Google Gemini, Claude AI or ChatGPT to “be an expert” and develop a complete marketing strategy with relevant content for a business with action plan, let’s say for a travel company or real estate agency. I’ve used each LLM to do just that. It is fun to converse with Deepseek, Gemini or ChatGPT and train it to do what I need and let it inform and educate me. And it seems to like my inputs which help it refine and build out relevant creative ideas and tactics.
Asking it to replicate my tricky SEO and content tactics is currently not possible, because (a) it doesn’t understand Google’s ranking algorithm, and (b) it doesn’t understand how humans feel about content, and (c) it will optimize and create content and optimization schemes that Google’s system will detect and demote. And people don’t really enjoy AI-generated copy. In fact, it can alienate audiences once they think a robot wrote it. The emotional connection with the brand is injured.
Still, most content creators are using AI to understand customer’s interest and intent, and then revising their graphic or text work to make it sound human, even in the brand’s own voice.
For a business, such as yours, training an AI agent, building and adopting an expert persona entered in via the user prompt, or even asking DeepSeek, Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT to develop an expert persona model based on content gathered by a real human expert, there’s no doubt it could produce something valuable – even potential eliminating everyone in the marketing department. With AI image and video generative AI, even the visual creators are beginning to feel the threat. On Google, everyone’s asking what AI can’t replace as though their lives depend on avoiding AI.
What is an expert? It might be better to broaden our view and think of them as purveyors of excellence, who could apply themselves continuously to new and difficult challenges. They’re motivated contributors and valuable in supporting the company, beyond a specialized task. Often they’re not and talent is wasted. They analyze, devise and streamline, and bring rich human engagement to solving problems. They’re human, can empathize and connect with other people in a human way an LLM Chatbot cannot.
Can You Replicate a Human Expert and Improve on Them?
I’m certain some users are trying to create a digital version of themselves and then using the LLM to optimize that persona or entity to strengthen weaknesses, fill in gaps, and find the best way to exploit their key talents. That might be wise for most business owners, to optimize their staff’s productivity and success. You could create a new professional version of yourself (e.g., a top marketing expert, travel consultant, real estate advisor) and let it craft something that is masterful, creative, adaptive and productive. And the speed? Well, our heads are already spinning.
It looks concerning right now for experts and rank and file too. However is there something essential and precious about individual experts that can’t be beaten by an AI LLM? What is it that an expert offers that’s priceless for a company? Is it insights, skills, judgment, imagination, human empathy, an attractive style and voice, experiences, and connectivity with real people? So then it would be more than just expertise requested.
11 Compelling Reasons why a human travel and marketing expert is still indispensable:
- Emotional Intelligence & Empathy
Humans understand nuanced emotions, cultural sensitivities, and personal anxieties (e.g., fear of flying, family travel needs, power of beaches, where the most intense human vibe is in a country). AI can’t genuinely feel or offer heartfelt reassurance either. And AI chat on social media actually creates the opposite effect. Travel experts have that joy of travel that a true travel lover possesses and they know this is the fountain of travel sales.
- Personalized Storytelling & Brand Connection
Great marketing thrives on authentic storytelling—human experts craft compelling narratives that resonate emotionally with people, something AI-generated content currently lacks.
- Crisis Management & Real-Time Adaptability
When flights get canceled or PR disasters strike, humans think creatively, negotiate with empathy, and adapt strategies dynamically—AI follows pre-set algorithms.
- Seasoned Expertise
While an AI system could develop a worthy digital marketing or SEO strategy, it might fall flat on its face, because it doesn’t have real-world experience and it misses the fact that one key component of the campaign is weak or flawed, thus creating losing results. An expert, who doesn’t share his “special sauce” knows the little things that actually drive success.
- Cultural & Behavioral Nuance
A human expert intuitively grasps cultural taboos, what’s liked and respected, the local humor and unspoken preferences (e.g., why a certain destination’s “luxury” perception varies globally).
- Trust & Relationship Building
Clients and partners trust humans for contracts, collaborations, and loyalty-building—AI can’t form genuine relationships or read subtle cues in negotiations or customer intent.
- Ethical & Moral Judgment
Humans weigh ethical dilemmas (e.g., overtourism, greenwashing) with conscience; AI lacks moral reasoning and may optimize for engagement over sustainability. It may send undesirable or unintended hints to customers to visit or do things that are not compatible.
- Hyper-Local Expertise & Insider Knowledge
A seasoned travel marketer knows hidden gems, seasonal trends, cool people to meet including tour guides, trouble to avoid, and word-of-mouth hotspots that AI scrapes but doesn’t experience.
- Creative Campaigns Beyond Data
While AI analyzes trends, humans invent them—think viral campaigns like “The Blonde Abroad” or Airbnb’s “Live There”—fueled by human creativity, not just data.
- Persuasion & High-Stakes Sales
Closing a high-value corporate travel deal or luxury resort partnership requires human charm and understanding of people, using spontaneity relevant conversation, and then reading between the lines—AI can’t match that finesse.
- Unpredictable Problem-Solving
When a traveler gets stranded or a campaign backfires, humans improvise solutions (e.g., leveraging personal networks, crafting witty comebacks)—AI sticks to scripts.
Final Thoughts
Given most things can be replicated and faked, it is the expert’s real-life connection to customers, and the memory of your conversations that offers the greatest value. When customers connect with your expert CSR’s, travel advisors and tour guides, they receive the comfort, trust, and confidence needed to be a great customer.
AI LLM’s can’t actually travel, see or really understand a tourist attraction or walk at a beautiful beach or village, nor share in the conversation in a tour with people, or taste a scrumptious meal to feel the essence of a foreign culture. And few tourists would feel comfortable taking advice and encouragement from an AI agent. Instead, they want to connect with the unique, flawed yet helpful, engaging style of a human travel agent or tour guide advisor. It’s the non-artificial that becomes compelling and persuasive.
It’s true that human experts bring intuition, creativity, trust, and adaptability that machines simply can’t replicate. Is unique the only thing that keeps us relevant in business anymore? Does AI threaten to erode expert’s human value? Questions may help us more than answers.
I think human experts are the most vital workers, creating real trust, connection and compelling preferred value in contrast to the mundane, fake, automated relationship that value customers might see through.
So you actually do need your experts. And you can have both!
