AI vs. Humans: Who Is Superior?

How Joining StoreHero Changed My Skepticism Toward AI

One of the biggest changes I've experienced since joining StoreHero is how I relate to AI.

To be honest, when AI first started trending, I looked at it with a cool, skeptical eye. The responses felt like a patchwork of information scraped from the internet, and I couldn't bring myself to trust them for real work.

But as I began integrating AI into every aspect of my work at StoreHero — data analysis, image generation, writing code — my perception shifted from "distrust" to "trust." These days, even without carefully crafting every prompt, AI consistently delivers answers that exceed my expectations. I find myself thinking every day: "Thank goodness for AI."

AI Handles Hard Skills — So What Do Humans Bring?

In the midst of all this, a question has been nagging at me: "When it comes down to it, who is superior — AI or humans?"

My conclusion: there will likely never come a day when humans outperform AI in hard skills. The sheer volume of learning and speed of processing are fundamentally different — it's a different kind of "brain" at the program level.

But does that mean humans will be replaced? Absolutely not. That's where "soft skills" become critically important.

AI That Plays Human, and the Human Who Stands Across From It

Recent AI — think chatbots and AI-driven sales conversations — has become remarkably "human-like" in its communication. It can project warmth, or hold a tense, high-stakes dialogue, almost at will.

Yet this is ultimately nothing more than learning from the enormous body of output humans have created over the years and reproducing it in a simulated way.

Consider, for example, the "subtle shift in expression" or the "unconscious gesture" that can't be picked up through an online meeting. The ability to notice these cues and instinctively know when to step in with just the right word — I believe that still belongs exclusively to humans.

The Direction of Someone's Toes, a Hand Resting on the Table

Imagine an in-person meeting.

Sales psychology techniques — mirroring, open-ended questions, and the like — can certainly be replicated perfectly by AI. But whether the other person is truly convinced, or quietly anxious — the answer shows up somewhere beyond words.

• Is the hand resting on the table relaxed, or is it clenched with tension?
• Are their arms crossed, or are they open?
• And which way are their toes pointing?

The art of instantly reading these nonverbal signals and deciding "now is the right moment to share this important point" — integrating the multi-layered information from vision and hearing that Mehrabian's Law describes to create the right atmosphere in the room — that is still beyond AI's reach.

In the Age of "Coexistence," Being the Human Who Wields AI

Even in the arts, it is said that while AI can produce excellent "parody," generating true originality from nothing remains a formidable challenge.

Ultimately, AI and humans are not competing to see who is superior. There are things only humans can do, and AI only realizes its true value when it is put to use.

Looking ahead, the question we should be grappling with is not "which is better" but simply this: "How do we coexist with AI?"

Not a human replaced by AI, but a human who wields AI as the ultimate partner — engaging with clients through a uniquely human sensibility. That is the kind of Growth Partner I aspire to be, and so today, as always, I keep chasing the faint signals from the person on the other side of the screen — or right in front of me.

◾️ Kazunari Honda, Growth Partner / Sales

After graduating from a music conservatory and performing with orchestras as a musician, Kazunari shifted into e-commerce, managing online retail operations for a specialty liquor buying and reselling company. He then worked as an e-commerce marketplace consultant before becoming an executive officer overseeing an entire business division. At StoreHero, he serves as a Growth Partner managing client growth initiatives while also heading up sales. His hobbies include drinking, karaoke, and playing musical instruments.