#562 The Soul Edge: Why AI's Real Bottleneck Is Human, Not Technological
The Soul Edge: Why AI's Real Bottleneck Is Human, Not Technological
Boards across the world are racing to implement artificial intelligence, yet the results rarely match the ambition. In this week's episode of The Leadership Podcast, host Niels Brabandt speaks with author and former international executive Ernesto Gomez about his new book, “The Soul Edge: From Extractive to Regenerative Performance, Leading at the Human Frontier in the Age of AI.” Their conversation makes an uncomfortable case for business leaders: the technology is rarely the problem. The people implementing it are.
A Race That Looks More Like a Hamster Wheel
Ernesto Gomez opens with a sobering statistic. According to a recent McKinsey study, only 7.9 per cent of companies have implemented AI at scale. Of those, only a third can show progress beyond a pilot, and just one in four of that group demonstrates any measurable economic return. “It feels more like a hamster wheel than a race,” Gomez tells Niels Brabandt. “We're just moving really fast without making any progress to account for.”
Niels Brabandt adds a data point of his own from a recent Wharton Business School and University of Pennsylvania study, in which 55 to 65 per cent of surveyed companies said their return on AI investment was behind, or far behind, expectations. “Investing in AI has less odds than a bet on a red table at a casino,” Brabandt notes, a comparison Gomez does not dispute.
Why Disengagement Is the Real Warning Sign
Alongside the disappointing returns, Ernesto Gomez points to a parallel crisis. Gallup reporting shows employee disengagement climbing towards pandemic-era levels, and, critically, the trend is no longer confined to frontline staff. Managers and senior managers are becoming disengaged too. “The bottleneck is not really technological, it's human,” Gomez says.
From an Extractive Equation to Regenerative Performance
At the centre of Gomez's argument is what he calls the “extractive equation”, the traditional performance model built on control, proprietary know-how and relentless pressure. The formula worked for decades. The problem, Gomez explains, is that AI is eroding the know-how advantage that used to differentiate companies, leaving control and pressure as the only remaining ingredients. “That's not a good recipe to flourish,” he says. “I think that model is going to suffocate.”
In its place, Gomez proposes a regenerative performance model built on human capacity, team alignment and meaning. He describes a four-step progression: building the right skills, developing a more fluid mindset, discovering what he calls a “soul signature”, an honest inventory of a person's essential human qualities, and finally opening up to ideas, creativity and inspiration beyond one's own expertise. Awareness, Gomez argues, is the foundational human skill beneath all four steps. “The only thing that AI will never have is a soul,” he says, explaining the book's title.
Making the Business Case to Sceptical Leadership
Niels Brabandt puts the practical question to Gomez directly: how do you convince a management team that is fully committed to an AI-first strategy that something else needs attention? Gomez points to his own board experience at large multinationals, where frustration is mounting because bottom-line results are not materialising, even as bonuses are increasingly tied to AI-driven metrics. His answer is not to abandon AI investment, but to pair it with what he calls a “soul search” inside the organisation, with human resources playing a central role in bringing the conversation to the table.
The economic case, Gomez argues, is significant in its own right. Citing Gallup data, he notes that disengagement is now costing the global economy roughly ten trillion US dollars, around nine per cent of global GDP. “There is a lot of value to capture,” he says. The harder question, in his view, is whether leaders are willing to have conversations that go beyond someone's job title. “Are you willing to speak soul to soul to your teammates, or to your boss, or to your employees?” Gomez asks. “We speak to the role, not to the soul of the person behind the position.”
What This Means for Decision-Makers
The conversation between Niels Brabandt and Ernesto Gomez lands on a clear message for business leaders: AI investment without attention to human capacity, alignment and meaning is unlikely to deliver the returns boards are expecting. Organisations that pair their AI strategy with a genuine, structured focus on the human side of performance are the ones most likely to move from a hamster wheel to an actual race.
Ernesto Gomez can be reached via his website, AspenMindsetOne.com, or on LinkedIn under Ernesto Gómez R. Sapelo, for speaking engagements, coaching and mentoring.
Niels Brabandt
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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
For the videocast's and podcast's transcript, read below this article.
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Podcast and Videocast Transcript
Niels Brabandt
Leadership is complex. The question is how do you handle it, and what are the most important aspects of this. And we have an author with us here, back by popular demand. He was with us a couple of months ago, and he's now back. Hello and welcome back, Ernesto Gómez.
Ernesto Gómez
Hello Niels. I'm very glad to meet with you and your audience again. Very excited.
Niels Brabandt
Thank you very much for taking the time. We'll get straight into it. You wrote a new book which is called "The Soul Edge." So what is this book? It says: "From extractive to regenerative performance: leading at the human frontier in the age of AI." In the age of intelligence. So what is this book about, and what motivated you specifically to write it in this point in time?
Ernesto Gómez
Well, I think your audience relates to the following: we're running this race to implement AI as soon as possible. There's a lot of pressure in boards, leaders, C-suites, etc. And everybody's racing this race, you know, like crazy. But I wonder if we're running the right race. That's what I kind of oppose in the book. And let me tell you why: it feels more like a hamster wheel than a race, to be honest with you. Because we're just moving really fast without making any progress to account for.
Ernesto Gómez
There is a study from McKinsey that just came out a couple of weeks ago that says that 7.9% of companies have implemented AI. Only a third can show any progress beyond a pilot. And out of those, just 1 in 4, it's really showing some economic return. So the economic case, you know, it's kind of a faucet.
Ernesto Gómez
And also we have a problem of disengagement. Gallup came with a report, you know, a couple of months ago also, saying that disengagement is on the rise. It's almost at pandemic levels.
Niels Brabandt
Yes.
Ernesto Gómez
And not only the baseline is disengaged, now managers and senior managers are getting disengaged as well. This is a standing ground where we have to implement AI. And I wonder, well, what is the bottleneck? The bottleneck is not really technological, it's human.
Ernesto Gómez
And what I present in the book, you know, is that at the bottom, you know, what is happening is there is a change in the way we perform. Performance back in the day was defined by an extractive equation. That's what I say. And this extractive equation consists of a lot of control. You know, you have all your systems to control.
Niels Brabandt
Yes. Yeah. Monitor, monitor, monitor. Exactly. Yeah.
Ernesto Gómez
Exactly. And then you have your know-how, your competitive advantage, whatever codified intelligence you have to, you know, distinguish yourself in the market. And then you put a lot of pressure into that. Pressure in the means that, you know, more, more, more, more. And that has been very successful.
Ernesto Gómez
The problem is that if you remove the know-how part, because now artificial intelligence is kind of eroding the advantages that all companies used to have, you're left with control and pressure.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Ernesto Gómez
So that's not a good recipe to flourish. And I think that that model is going to suffocate. That's what I present in the book. And then I propose a transition. You know, well, if we are running from an extractive model, how would a regenerative performance model look like? And in the book I present, you know, the steps and the frameworks to do that.
Niels Brabandt
Excellent. I mean, we can say I just recently read a study from the Wharton Business School and University of Pennsylvania where they surveyed companies about the return on investment and AI.
Niels Brabandt
And they said that the companies hovered between roughly 55 to 65% of the companies said the category they choose is either behind expectations or even far behind expectations.
Niels Brabandt
Meaning when you are behind, when you are somewhere in the 55 to 65% area, it means investing in AI has less odds than a bet on a red table at a casino.
Ernesto Gómez
Exactly.
Niels Brabandt
So how do you now, let's say you have people who are sitting there and say, it all makes sense, I understand that. However, our management is fully on the bandwagon on, look, AI is everything and we need to invest in AI and it needs to be AI and AI everywhere and whatnot else. How to convince people that they follow your path to say, look, there is something else, there's a different take on it?
Ernesto Gómez
I participated in a couple of boards, you know, of large multinational.
Niels Brabandt
I mean, you had a massive international career as an executive, I know. Yes, absolutely.
Ernesto Gómez
Exactly. And what I see now is that there is a lot of frustration because, of course, the bottom line is not really improving. And they're starting to asking questions. Why? The only thing is that the pressure goes beyond just, you know, recommendations. Now there are incentives, you know, bonuses assigned to, you know, how much progress you can make.
Ernesto Gómez
And I really think that there has to be a moment to soul search, as I say in the book, to really understand what am I not doing? Because there is value into it. We cannot say it is not. There is a lot of value. This is a once-in-a-lifetime change for the world. But the question is, what should we be doing?
Ernesto Gómez
We have to be more reflective and not just push, push, push. And that's what I think some people are bringing into the table. And quite frankly, I think that HR, human resources, it's a crucial, a key part into bringing this conversation in the table.
Ernesto Gómez
I mean, we have to grow. There is economic value to capture, no doubt about that. And we should pursue it. I wonder if we're running the right race.
Niels Brabandt
So you think that we might should focus on specific human traits that AI cannot replicate or cannot imitate at all?
Ernesto Gómez
Exactly. What I'm saying is that regenerative performance, which is what we should be looking into right now, it consists of human capacity, the alignment of yourself and the whole team around it, and then how you derive meaning from all of that. Because that part, human capacity, you know, your judgment, ingenuity, curiosity. In the book I say that it goes through a four-step process.
Ernesto Gómez
You have to start with the skills because you have to have a certain level of skills. And then you go into the mindset. Because now we have to be more fluid in the way we approach things. The change is so rapid and so profound. And then I think we go to a place that I call the soul signature. Meaning you have to go inside and say, where are my qualities, my essential qualities? What am I all about? You know, what's really human?
Ernesto Gómez
This begs the question, what makes us really, you know, human? And from there, I think that there has to be an opening as well. Saying, you know, I may not have all the answers myself. And I'm ready to hear, to download from everywhere. If there is inspiration, if there is creativity, if there is something that my environment can bring me, you know, so be it. Let's open to that.
Ernesto Gómez
And that is also, it's very important to have a baseline of awareness. If you don't have awareness, I think that's the very basic skill that makes us human. If you don't have awareness, I don't know. You know, there's saying that AI can be conscious. I'm not sure that's true. But I've been, I've heard very intelligent people trying to put that argument upfront. But the only thing that AI will never have is a soul.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah.
Ernesto Gómez
So that's why I name my book "The Soul Edge." Because even if you think that AI can be conscious, which I don't, but even if you think that, you cannot really think of AI as having a soul. And that's the baseline that you have to use to build your strategy around.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah. Excellent. Perfect. When people now say, hmm, I think this book might be a good read, and probably they say afterwards, I think Ernesto could be of help for us as a mentor, coach, or as a speaker at our conference. Of course, one question I have to ask here, how can people get in touch with you?
Ernesto Gómez
I have a webpage named AspenMindsetOne. One is number one. AspenMindsetOne.com. And you can read all about me and my books and what I do. And you can also there write me an email.
Ernesto Gómez
You can also contact me through LinkedIn. I'm Ernesto Gómez R. Sapelo in LinkedIn. And you can send me a message and I will be more than glad to talk to your audience.
Ernesto Gómez
And I mean, we're, there is one thing that I find, nobody really knows how this is going to evolve. That's for sure. But I think that what we all know is that if we don't consider the human part, if we don't really leverage our essential human qualities, this is not going to work.
Ernesto Gómez
And there's an economic case to be made out of this. The disengagement, by the way, is costing about $10 trillion now. It's 9% of GDP, according to Gallup. So there is a lot of value to capture.
Ernesto Gómez
But the uncomfortable conversation now is, am I willing to speak soul to soul to my teammates or to my boss or to my employees? Am I willing to cross that frontier? That's what I say. This is leading from the human frontier. We have to be able to have these conversations, which traditionally we don't have. Because we speak to the role, not to the soul of the person behind the position.
Niels Brabandt
Yeah. Perfect. I think these are the perfect final words. "The Soul Edge." You know what the next, what is the next book you need to read. And of course, you now know how to get in touch with Ernesto. So at the end of this interview, there's only one thing left for me to say. Ernesto, thank you very much for your time.
Ernesto Gómez
Thank you so much, Niels. I'm so happy to see you again.