About the Authors
Abbott, a VC and founder of AI Salon, has helped hundreds of people navigate AI's impact on their work and life. Maynard, a professor and author, has spent decades researching and teaching about how society navigates transformative technologies. Together, they've created something unique: an AI book that's about being human.
Jeffrey Abbott is a Founding Partner at Blitzscaling Ventures and founder of AI Salon, a global community spanning over 60 cities that hosts hundreds of events annually. As a venture capitalist whose firm has invested in companies like CrewAI and the AI upskilling platform Multiverse, while simultaneously building one of the world’s largest AI practitioner networks, Abbott bridges Silicon Valley innovation with human-centered values in ways few others can.
Andrew Maynard is a Professor of Advanced Technology Transitions at Arizona State University and founding director of the ASU Future of Being Human initiative. Author of Films from the Future and Future Rising, and co-host of the Modem Futura podcast, he combines scientific rigor with accessible and meaningful human insight to help everyone from high school students to CEOs navigate how emerging technologies can amplify what makes us most deeply human.
About This Book
How do you rediscover what makes you you in a world where AI can replicate everything you do?
In AI and the Art of Being Human, Abbott and Maynard guide you step by step through embracing your humanity as machines become increasingly able to mirror everything you do. Using fictional narratives, they reveal truths about our relationship with AI—and how to thrive in an AI future—that only stories can capture, showing rather than telling what becomes possible when technology reflects who we are.
You’ll discover transformative approaches that are built on four principles designed to help you embrace and celebrate who you are in an age of AI:
Curiosity
Staying willing to be surprised while resisting the obvious answer from AI
Intentionality
Choosing consciously rather than following algorithmic momentum
Clarity
Seeing what AI tools or models miss—the human context beneath the data
Care
Choosing human flourishing over pure optimization
Combined with twenty-one practical tools you can use immediately, their unique approach powerfully transforms abstract AI concepts into lived experience. Whether you're a professional, entrepreneur, investor, parent, artist, or simply someone navigating modern life, this is a book for you.
Praise for AI and the Art of Being Human
As AI rapidly advances in mimicking human capabilities, the question of how to engage with it becomes increasingly important. AI and the Art of Being Human shows us how to do this with intentionality and care as our guiding principles. The book envisions how core human values, especially compassion, can be integrated into the design of AI tools. At the same time, it encourages us to view the challenges AI presents to our self-understanding as an opportunity to reflect more deeply into what it means to be human. This is a profoundly human book on one of the defining questions of our time.
Thupten Jinpa
Translator to the Dalai Lama, Compassion Institute Chair, & author of A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives
Most who grapple with the implications of the AI revolution focus on economics, science, and geopolitics. All important lenses, but they don't address the disorientation and uncertainty we feel when AI amazes and terrifies us with its power. Jeff Abbott and Andrew Maynard illuminate the human side of the AI revolution with a combination of philosophy, global inclusivity, and practical frameworks and exercises anyone can use. This book is a must-read for anyone trying to figure out their place in an AI-infused world.
Chris Yeh
Co-author of Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
AI is changing almost everything. The question for people is how to navigate and more importantly thrive in this new world. AI and the Art of Being Human provides practical, actionable, experience- and theory-based advice for people seeking answers to these important questions. At once engaging and practical, the authors have furnished a road map for the new world.
Jeffrey Pfeffer
Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford's Graduate School of Business and author of 7 Rules of Power
I appreciated the author's exploration of AI as a mirror, capable of replicating our tasks but also incapable of the irreducibly human work of making meaning. Wrestling with how we co-exist with the machines we are building will be the core question for us as individuals and as a society over the next few years. The positive message of this book is that the smart move isn't to out-compute the machine but to become more fully human—anchored in Curiosity, Intentionality, Clarity, and Care. With actionable frameworks for work and life, it's a practical playbook for using AI as a collaborator while you double down on the human capacities that elevate people.
Ted Shelton
AI Strategist and former Chief Operating Officer, Inflection AI
This book is an engaging and optimistic reminder of the opportunity the AI moment represents across society. What Jeff and Andrew have achieved is not just a vision of a future of people and technology working together, but a roadmap to get there.
Euan Blair
CEO and Founder, Multiverse
AI and the Art of Being Human is a profound guide for our time—showing us how our technology can illuminate, rather than diminish, our shared humanity. It is a vital companion for leaders, seekers, and communities striving to align innovation with compassion and care. It is a call to remember that AI is a mirror which can help us see our deepest humanity. Abbott and Maynard offer a timely invitation to lead with courage and intention shaping a future where innovation and spirituality walk hand in hand toward a world filled with possibilities.
Owsley Brown
Board Member Mind and Life Institute and Chair, Festival of Faiths
What if the rise of AI isn't a threat, but an opportunity? This book masterfully unpacks the complex relationship between humans and machines, providing a visionary framework for a future where technology serves our deepest aspirations. It challenges us to think more intentionally about the AI we create and the world we want to build. Truly transformative.
Ken Durazzo
Vice President, Dell Research
AI is not just another tech fad. It is transformational and makes us question the essence of what distinguishes us as humans. This book is a must read for everyone navigating AI. A practical, optimistic and human centric guide to thrive in times of AI.
Constantijn van Oranje Nassau
Special Envoy, Techleap.nl
The most valuable career skill of the 21st century might be the ability to blend our most human qualities with increasingly powerful AI capabilities. In this handbook for the near future, Abbott and Maynard show us how it's done. With tangible realistic leadership stories of leaders facing tough challenges, they demonstrate how we can leverage AI to amplify the best of humanity.
Tom Kelley
Co-author, Creative Confidence
Your future, whether as a founder, manager, or executive, is a future where AI is part of almost everything you do. This excellent book will not only show you what is to come but also how you can prepare for it!
Frans Johansson
CEO of Medici Next and author of The Medici Effect
Through short and engaging stories, this book offers a thoughtful reflection on how to preserve human agency in the age of artificial agents. It provides fundamental tools to help you apply your human curiosity and intentionality in order to thrive amid the dramatic shift looming over our world with Artificial Intelligence.
Nicolai Wadstrom
Co-founder of Bootstrap Labs
Go Be Human