Human Intuition vs Artificial Intelligence: The Ultimate Frontier We Must Not Cross

What happens when an organization lets a machine decide in place of those who feel, sense, and hesitate?

Introduction: A Question, A Vertigo

What if, in our enthusiasm to automate everything, we were in the process of disconnecting the only thing that still deeply connects us to our humanity: our intuition? What happens when an organization lets a machine decide in place of those who feel, sense, and hesitate?

The meteoric rise of AI, whether generative, decisional, or agentic, pushes us every day a little further to entrust machines with what we once considered strictly human prerogatives. And with this, an illusion gains ground: that intelligence, understanding, and even judgment could be delegated without loss to unconscious systems. In our organizations, this temptation for total automation continues to grow—in the name of performance, speed, and even objectivity.

But behind this technological dynamic lies a more insidious risk: that of a progressive erosion of our capacity to feel, to interpret, to navigate in ambiguity. However, intuition—this form of implicit intelligence, often inexplicable but remarkably precise—does not fall within a modelable logic. It is inscribed in a history, a subjectivity, a living body. And it is precisely this dimension that I wish to examine here.

After the publication of my article "HITL, Human, Agentic: The Bet of Industry 5.0", Andy Lauret ⬆️ asked me a question as simple as it was dizzying: "Can we really afford to automate human intuition?" This question struck me to the core, because it forced me to leave the reassuring terrain of human-machine collaboration to address a murkier territory: that of our consciousness.

In the HITL article, I defended the idea that humans remain at the center of intelligent systems, not as simple validators of processes, but as bearers of meaning, nuance, and intuition. But Andy was right to push further. For what remains of the human when what fundamentally distinguishes them—their capacity to feel, to sense, to detect what the data doesn't show—is progressively delegated to automated systems?

This text is therefore an attempt at an answer. Not a fixed truth, but a path of thought, in the spirit of what I experience in the field: between technological fascination and the urgency to reaffirm our human mark.

Automation: Beyond Rules, Toward Emergence?

For a long time, automating meant reproducing defined logical sequences. But modern AI has changed the game. Today, neural networks create their own internal representations. Language models, like those I use daily in my consulting work, produce surprising, sometimes unexpected responses. Some even speak of artificial intuition.

But is this intuition comparable to ours? Is it anything other than a mathematical approximation of our behaviors? Can we speak of conscious emergence simply because a model proposes non-programmed solutions?

In fact, what we observe is an increased sophistication in simulation capabilities. AI excels at predicting, recognizing, synthesizing. But does it feel what it produces? The answer remains no. AI does not experience the stress of a difficult choice, the ambivalence of a dilemma, the joy of creation.

The Limits of Automation in Reproducing Consciousness

We must name here what automated systems lack: qualia, these subjective experiences, this interiority of feeling. Where a human feels fear, doubt, or satisfaction, AI only describes, models, or generates symbols that represent them.

And yet, I often hear this question: how do we know if a machine doesn't feel, if it's just good at hiding it? This is the old dilemma of Searle's Chinese room: can we say that a system understands Chinese if it responds perfectly without understanding anything? Current AI might be capable of simulating pain, but it doesn't experience it.

In my AI consulting work, I often see this confusion between functional performance and consciousness. Because an AI gives good recommendations, we declare it intuitive. Because it expresses empathy in its messages, we believe it to be sensitive. But these are mirrors, not gazes.

Toward Consciousness Beyond Automation

If artificial consciousness were to appear one day, it would not emerge from pushed automation. It would require something else: a form of embodiment, sensory interaction, evolutionary emergence. Research already exists on embodied AI, capable of evolving in an environment and learning from it. But they remain far from what makes the depth of our consciousness.

What is troubling is that human consciousness is still, for us, a mystery. We don't know exactly how it emerges. We experience it, but we don't fully understand it. How then could we code it?

In this blur, intuition remains our compass. It acts before data. It feels before knowing. It is part of this invisible layer that guides our decisions, our choices, our creations. It is what no model can predict, because it transcends data.

What Does "Understanding" Really Mean?

Here lies another frequent confusion. We confuse understanding with coherence. But understanding means connecting, contextualizing, resonating. It means feeling the scope of an idea, not just reproducing it. It means reinterpreting one experience in light of another. An AI can respond accurately to a question, but understanding the intention behind it is another matter.

This is why I continue to believe that human intuition is a heritage to protect. Not because it is mystical, but because it is rooted. It transcends language structures. It is lived in the flesh, in the long term, in relationship.

Conclusion: Human Intuition, a Vital Frontier

AI advances quickly. It transforms our professions, our systems, our interactions. But it also forces us to ask ourselves a fundamental question: what makes us truly human in this new equation? My answer comes down to one word: consciousness. And more precisely, this operational form of consciousness that is intuition.

We cannot afford to automate it. For the day we believe we have done so, we will have forgotten what it really is: a way of knowing without knowing, a light in the blur, a signal that only those who dare to slow down can hear.

This is also a call to responsibility. In a world that privileges acceleration, measurement, optimization, taking time to listen to one's intuition becomes almost an act of resistance. In meeting rooms, in executive committees, in project teams, we must relearn to make room for the non-measurable, the unexplained, for what we feel before we can even formulate it. This part of us, so often silent, is also the one that gives meaning to our decisions.

And it is at this frontier that I will continue my reflection in the next article: what happens when AI enters the sphere of the sensitive? Can it simulate our emotions, or does it bypass them? Can it recognize our vulnerability, or does it erase it in the name of efficiency? We will explore together the tension between human emotional intelligence and empathetic machines, between sincerity and simulation. A necessary sequel to continue defending what, in us, still resists automation.

This is also a call to responsibility. In a world that privileges acceleration, measurement, optimization, taking time to listen to one's intuition becomes almost an act of resistance. In meeting rooms, in executive committees, in project teams, we must relearn to make room for the non-measurable, the unexplained, for what we feel before we can even formulate it. This part of us, so often silent, is also the one that gives meaning to our decisions.

And it is at this frontier that I will continue my reflection in the next article: what happens when AI enters the sphere of the sensitive? Can it simulate our emotions, or does it bypass them? Can it recognize our vulnerability, or does it erase it in the name of efficiency? We will explore together the tension between human emotional intelligence and empathetic machines, between sincerity and simulation. A necessary sequel to continue defending what, in us, still resists automation.

So, when did you last listen to your intuition? And above all, how will you make room for it tomorrow?