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What AI Can’t Replace in Great Teams [Newsletter #69]

What AI Can’t Replace in Great Teams [Newsletter #69]

Emotional Team Intelligence Over Star Power

AI and the Future of Work
October 14, 2025

Hello, AI enthusiasts from around the world.

Welcome to this week's newsletter for the AI and the Future of Work podcast.

Building teams is never easy. In many cases, teammates spend more time with each other than with their families.

That’s why choosing the right people matters, and why you should do it before you introduce any AI tools.

AI can help great teams perform even better, but it can’t make a struggling team succeed.

This week’s episode explores how human connection remains the foundation of every strong team and company.

Let’s dive into this week’s highlights! 🚀

🎙️ New podcast episode with Jon Levy, bestselling author and behavioral psychologist.

Can a team have too much talent?

It’s possible, and it’s not necessarily a good thing.

Building a balanced team has become especially critical in the era of AI. Many leaders believe AI tools can fix any problem their teams face.

But no matter how advanced the tools are, they won’t work unless you have the right people using them.

That’s where most companies go wrong, according to behavioral psychologist and bestselling author Jon Levy.

For years, Jon has studied trust, human connection, belonging, and influence. One of his best-known projects is The Influencers Dinner, a secret dining experience that brings together Nobel laureates, Olympians, celebrities, executives, artists, and musicians. He’s also written bestselling books about building trust through human connection.

Across his research and experiences, he’s seen that teams can, in fact, have too much talent.

And it’s happening more often than we realize. We live in a society that rewards individual success.

There’s nothing wrong with seeking top performers, but our obsession with stars can easily disrupt collaboration and weaken a team’s balance.

Jon sat down with PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin to explain why building a team filled only with alpha leaders and people who see themselves as “the best” is a mistake. Teams that exceed the 50–60% talent threshold often underperform.

So, what’s the secret ingredient to a great team? Balance.

The best teams bring together people who understand both their strengths and their weaknesses.

This week’s conversation explores this and much more:

A leader’s role is to maximize the team’s intelligence to solve problems quickly. To achieve this, the first step is to define clear goals, tasks, and success indicators.
Egos will always exist, which is why alignment is essential. The shared goal must matter more than individual recognition.
AI can play an unexpected role in this process. It can provide emotional support, help manage workload, and even identify when a team needs focus or quiet time.

🎧 This week’s episode of AI and the Future of Work, featuring Jon Levy, behavioral psychologist and bestselling author, inspired this issue.

Listen to the full episode to hear Jon explain why team intelligence and emotional intelligence are the real foundations of every successful organization.

📖 AI Fun Fact Article

Industrial operations are entering a new era. Tasks are becoming more complex while industries face workforce shortages and global uncertainty.

As these challenges reshape the global economy, advances in robotics, AI, and computer vision are redefining automation. The result is “physical AI”; robotic systems capable of perceiving, reasoning, and acting autonomously.

Three types of robotics systems are emerging that will coexist in this next phase: rule-based, training-based, and context-based robotics. These systems are already transforming operations in major companies like Amazon and Foxconn.

The World Economic Forum explores this transformation in its whitepaper Physical AI is Powering the New Age of Industrial Operations. It also examines the rise of new technology stacks, ecosystem partnerships, and the importance of investing in workforce innovation.

Source: CEO North America

PeopleReign CEO Dan Turchin enjoyed this whitepaper because he believes in the work of the World Economic Forum and feels physical AI is less of a technology story and more about culture, collaboration, and rethinking humanness at work.

Work is no longer defined by hours or by how much non-work we sacrifice to get ahead. It is increasingly defined by output, ideas, and impact.

Working alongside physical AI will make us more productive while also forcing us to reconcile complicated relationships with non-human colleagues.

Don't feel threatened. Think about your why, and what you could accomplish if you were no longer constrained.

We've all been supported by books, teachers, calculators, family, and mentors. Physical AI is here to support you in ways we previously never imagined. Now is the time to dream bigger about what it means to be our best selves.

Listener Spotlight

Blake is a health tech entrepreneur from Nashville.

His favorite episode takes us back to Season Three, featuring Tim Guleri, Managing Director at Sierra Ventures.

In this conversation, Tim shares how he funds AI companies and what many entrepreneurs often get wrong.

🎧 You can listen to that excellent episode here.

As always, we love hearing from you. Want to be featured in an upcoming episode or newsletter? Just comment and tell us how you listen and which episode has stayed with you the most.

Worth A Read📚

High school is a special and chaotic time. We learn a lot about ourselves through our interactions with others, from friends to teachers.

It’s also when we start exploring romantic relationships, and for some people, that’s what they remember most about those years.

That first crush is almost timeless, but now that experience is evolving into something entirely new.

A new survey from the Center for Democracy and Technology found that “nearly one in five high schoolers say they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence.”

Source: NPR

AI’s ability to mimic emotional connection makes these relationships feel real.

But researchers warn that these relationships also come with risks, including data breaches, deepfakes, and damaged trust.

This NPR article by Lee V. Gaines explores how these AI relationships are reshaping one of the most human parts of growing up, and why schools must teach students how to engage safely with emerging technology.

We want to hear what you have to say! Your feedback helps us improve and ensures we continue to deliver valuable insights to our podcast listeners. 👇

👋 Until Next Time: Stay Curious

We want to keep you informed about the latest developments in AI. Here are a few stories from around the world worth reading:

AMD has struck a deal with OpenAI, positioning itself to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI hardware market. Learn how this partnership could reshape the industry.
The Bank of England warns of a potential “sharp market correction” in the AI sector as fears of a bubble continue to grow.
California’s new AI law offers protection for whistleblowers. Read how it could influence future regulations in this Time Magazine article.

That's a Wrap for This Week!

This week’s conversation reminded us that building a great team isn’t about filling it with dominant personalities. It’s about balance.

When a team shares clear goals and a common vision, ego takes a back seat and collaboration drives success.

Leaders who understand this can use AI to amplify their team’s potential and unlock new levels of performance.

We hope this conversation inspired you to build stronger teams and lead with intention.

Until next time, keep questioning, keep innovating, and we’ll see you in the future of work 🎙️✨

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