The Crisis Isn’t Artificial Intelligence. The Crisis Is Artificial Connection.

We are not losing ourselves to artificial intelligence. We are losing ourselves to artificial connection and most people don’t even notice it happening.

We scroll, we click, we respond, we 'connect', yet we feel increasingly alone, unseen, and disconnected from what makes us human, and to what really makes us happy. AI is not replacing our humanity. We are slowly withdrawing from it.

This is not a technological crisis. This is a human crisis of connection and leadership, and it starts within us.

The Disconnection We Don’t Talk About

For years, we’ve been trained to prioritise efficiency over presence, productivity over meaning, and performance over genuine relationship. We have become used to reacting instead of relating. Our nervous systems are overstimulated, yet under-nourished.

In that state, it becomes easier to interact through screens than to sit with real human emotions, our own or others’. We unconsciously begin to replace real connection with fast, surface-level substitutes.

Artificial connection feels quick, easy, safe. But it doesn’t feed us. It fragments us.

Without Connection, Leadership Becomes Impossible

Leadership does not begin in boardrooms, job titles, or strategy meetings. Leadership begins with our capacity to connect; to ourselves, to each other, and to what matters.

When we are disconnected:

• we lose empathy

• we lose curiosity

• we lose responsibility

• we lose the ability to lead, even in our own lives

A nervous system that is overwhelmed or numb cannot access the qualities needed for leadership. Qualities like presence, clarity, compassion and courage. Without inner safety, the human impulse is to withdraw, shut down, or outsource agency to someone or something else.

This is how people lose themselves, not to AI, but to disconnection. And powerless, disconnected people become easy to influence and lead not by wisdom, but by noise.

AI Is Now Filling the Space Where Human Connection Used to Live

AI didn’t take anything from us. However, we freely left a void and technology simply moved into the empty space.

When we don’t have the energy, time, or emotional capacity to connect, AI becomes a convenient stand-in:

• a chatbot instead of a friend

• a feed instead of community

• a reaction instead of relationship

AI can simulate connection brilliantly. But it cannot replace the human nervous system’s need for co-regulation and real presence.

When we choose artificial connection over real connection, it is not a tech problem. It is a human leadership gap.

This Isn’t About Going Backwards

This is not about rejecting AI, switching off devices, or returning to the 'old ways.'

The answer is not to fear technology or idealise the past. The answer is to re-humanise how we live alongside technology.

We don’t need less technology. We need more humanity.

We need:

• deeper conversations, not more comments

• shared presence, not constant performance

• relationships that nourish, not drain

• spaces where our nervous systems can breathe

AI will evolve. It will become more integrated, more accessible, and more intelligent. The question is not how advanced AI becomes, but how connected we remain as humans while using, and creating, it.

A Return to Human Leadership

Human connection is not a luxury, it is the foundation of inner leadership. Without it, we cannot lead ourselves, our families, our communities, or our future.

The crisis is not that AI is becoming more intelligent.The crisis is that we are becoming less connected, less present, and less willing to take responsibility for the relationships that shape our lives and societies.

Rebuilding connection is an act of leadership. It begins with simple choices:

• to slow down enough to feel

• to reach out instead of withdraw

• to listen without preparing our reply

• to let ourselves be seen, and to see others

This is how we reclaim our humanity.This is how we reclaim leadership.

A Gentle Closing Invitation

Before we ask, “How do we control AI?” We must first ask: “How do we reconnect with ourselves and each other?”

If we do not restore human connection, no amount of technology, regulation, or innovation will guide us wisely forward. Because the crisis was never artificial intelligence. It was always the slow erosion of human connection and we do have the power to change that.

(When I write about AI in this article, I am writing from lived experience with OpenAI’s language model, used as a reflective, educational, and creative tool. Other systems are governed differently and behave differently. This distinction matters).

I would love to hear your reflections on this topic. Join the conversation on LinkedIn, where I share more insights and invite dialogue with educators, creatives, and leaders worldwide. Connect to LinkedIn here.

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