Putting people back at the heart of artificial intelligence

Despite spectacular advances, current innovation in AI conversational agents has often remained trapped by two pitfalls: the fantasy of replacing humans and the technical complexity that slows down the adoption of these tools by companies, particularly SMEs and mid-sized companies.

However, I believe that the real promise of AI lies elsewhere. The AI agent of tomorrow will be neither a simple chatbot nor a cold substitute for human contact: it must become a true virtual advisor, like an expert, guided, refined, and supervised by humans.

Simple automation vs. human-advisor symbiosis

Too many bot solutions today replicate a model from the past: they serve as filters, automatic switchboard operators, and advanced FAQs. Effective at performing simple tasks, they quickly show their limitations when it comes to dealing with the subtleties of a situation, contextualizing a need, or embodying a brand’s values. We think we’re saving time, but we’re losing out on relationship quality and loyalty.

The new wave of conversational agents goes further: powered by data and natural language, they can maintain the conversational context, learn, adapt, and connect to APIs to perform real actions, but they remain tools.

The real evolution is to turn these agents into “AI advisors”: they become the digital alter ego, the extension of the knowledge, method, style, and personality of the human professional who guides them.

Why put humans back at the center?

• Empathy, adaptability, and a sense of context remain, to this day, the hallmarks of the best human advisors. AI, however sophisticated, feels no emotion or real responsibility.
• The value of expertise cannot be reduced to the accuracy of a response, but depends on a relationship of trust, discernment, and listening.
• An effective AI agent is one that is augmented by humans, learning from its interactions with leading experts and adjusting over time, while leaving the decision to its creator when the situation requires it.

For SMEs and mid-market companies: simplicity as a prerequisite for impact

Most current conversational agent solutions are either too generic or so flexible that they cannot be deployed without an army of developers. SMEs and mid-cap companies have neither the time, the resources, nor even the need to become data scientists to take advantage of AI. What made Apple successful was not the invention of the smartphone, but the democratization of its use thanks to a radically simple and beautifully designed experience.

Today, this is the philosophy that is lacking in enterprise AI:

• A no-code, user-friendly environment where experts can create their digital double in just a few steps, while remaining in control of their image, responses, and development.
• A solution that integrates natively into business ecosystems, without disrupting workflow or incurring hidden integration costs.
• The possibility of having an AI advisor who handles most routine requests, freeing up the human team to focus on reflection, creativity, and relationships.

The future of consulting: human AI, coached, orchestrated… and responsible

The potential of AI agents is not to replace humans, but to foster harmonious cooperation where:

• Humans orchestrate, supervise, provide direction, validate, and refine.
• AI executes, collects, synthesizes, anticipates, and feeds business intelligence in real time.
• Together, they create a hybrid experience that is personalized, scalable, and deeply faithful to the organization’s culture.

The company of tomorrow will not have an army of impersonal chatbots, but a constellation of AI advisors, each promoted, supervised, and continuously enriched by the human expertise that makes it valuable.

References for further reading:

• Ringover: “Conversational Agent vs. Chatbot: What’s the Difference?” (2025)
• Dialonce: “AI Agent or Human Customer Service: Which to Choose?” (2025)
• McKinsey: “The Agentic Organization: Contours of the Next Paradigm for the AI Era” (September 2025)
• IBM: “AI Agents in 2025: Expectations vs. Reality” (March 2025)
• Goldman Sachs: “We Must Prepare AI Natives to Shape the Future of Work” (July 2025)
• Experiences from the maturity of AI uses in consulting and French SMEs
• Xpertwin.com — The French AI expert twin platform vision
• Zelinqa.fr — French augmented and compliant AI solution for SMEs/mid-market companies

In conclusion, the era of the intelligent AI agent will not be that of the autonomous machine, but that of the augmented advisor: an AI that is effective, simple, human in the quality of its management, and virtuous in its transparent link with the professional who supervises it. Humans must remain in charge: this is how artificial intelligence will finally deliver on its promise to simplify, humanize, and multiply expertise for the benefit of all businesses.

Cyril Reinhard,
Founder of Maxaiki