22nd October 2026
Wow, there are strange things going on in the digital world. With AI continuing to go rogue, and with glitches found in billions of websites which could lead to endless issues for companies, organisations, governments and web shops; and with the algorithms that feed social media platforms making decisions that do nothing more than annoy everybody, isn’t if refreshing that we still, in the world of hairdressing, rely on HUMAN CONTACT. From the clients that visit salons, to the sales representatives and educators that visit to showcase and teach products and how to recommend them, it’s all about real time connections.
Of course there are organisations that are ditching the HUMAN CONTACT in favour of sending message out via WhatsApp and other tech methods, and developing ever more complicated online training platforms. Ultimately this leads to disenchantment, salon owners and their teams want interaction with the companies they deal with, they want the HUMAN CONTACT, they are not wanting every aspect of their working lives dictated to by an algorithm.
There has to be a blend, a fine balance between using AI and digital intelligence for the right reasons, to help, not hinder.
Today Barclays announced they were making 5000 people redundant and implementing new AI technologies to simplify the business.What this company, and many other organisations going down the same path don’t seem to recognise is that most people don’t want their lives to be completely digitally focussed, they want HUMAN CONTACT, and, as everyone knows, the digitalisation of everything just brings more problems than dealing with a real person every does, think chatbots and how its almost impossible to get any issue resolved without having to go through a laborious process until connected with a human being.
Of course algorithms are amazing, but as we see an ever increasing amount of ‘tech’ issues, this creates a sense of (well placed) mistrust in dealing with anything other than a person who can answer queries in real time.
And so those digital boffins who are hell bent on making the world a better place by making everything digital need to learn lessons from what’s happening right now and take a step back to analyse where this is going to end. Of course lots of reasons for pushing this our way is that it makes the bottom line grow exponentially (Barclays, you know what I mean).
What’s the answer then? We can’t stop progress, and we really shouldn’t, but when the algorithm becomes more important than HUMAN CONTACT, we have a problem. So for salons this means actively seeking out companies that still offer ‘sales calls and education days’ alongside their digital model.
Let’s not become totally reliant on algorithms, because as we have seen over the last few weeks, and especially the last couple of days, the potential for everything going pear shaped is absolutely a possibility.
#ProForPro #RealPeopleRealConnections
