AI vs AI! Why Applied Improv is a Crucial ‘AI‘
- Victoria Hogg
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
Salutations, meat puppets! Society is in so deep with Artificial Intelligence - or ‘AI’ - that it feels like it spreads into daily life without us even trying. Abbreviating our work (Applied Improvisation) to the initials ‘AI’ no longer stands. Colour me trying to jump on a bandwagon!
This new and all-prevalent AI certainly helps us work smarter but it tempts us to work alone; to be behind screens and strip down to mere transaction.
Artificial Intelligence is a means to an end. As German futurist Gerd Leonhard puts it: “Technology is not what we seek, but how we seek.” Applied Improvisation is, arguably, both the means and the end.
‘The other AI’ - Applied Improvisation - is what happens when improv techniques (‘Yes, And’, storytelling, spontaneous creativity, deep listening) are used to build resilient, collaborative and human-centred workplaces.
It’s the (messy, joyful) opposite of algorithms.
Harvard Business Review reports that 75 percent of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional, lacking trust, communication, and human connection—all elements that improvisation is designed to build. AI is a tool. But it ain’t the answer to everything.
Artificial Intelligence is fast.
Applied Improvisation is alive.
One is powered by machine learning.
The other is powered by heart and humour and individual intelligence.
In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, Applied Improv offers the antidote: spontaneity, presence, laughter, resilience and the irreplaceable magic of humans being gloriously creative together.
Maybe ours is the better kind of AI after all.
TRY IT OUT: Are you always data-driven? Can you connect better? Next work-based interaction, see if you can park ‘being right’ for the whole conversation and make a closer connection with the other person. You’ll empathise more, for sure. A more fruitful long game strategy, perhaps?
“Connection is why we’re here: it gives purpose and meaning to our lives” Brené Brown, Storyteller Researcher
Something celebrated…
I (Vic) just got back from Glastonbury. It’s a glorious, teeming, highly co-ordinated yet beautifully spontaneous event in some fields in Somerset. It’s about human connection and the joy of… being. Simply coexisting and celebrating and actively caring.
Together.
I was with two very good friends. One was a Glasto first-timer; the other was enjoying their tenth outing. I’ve weathered a stonking 21 (or is it 23?) Glastonbury Festivals myself.
The change in tech use at the festival in that time has been remarkable. From the occasional text back in the 90s (“WHere u?” “PYRAMID, on left”) to today’s comprehensive, outstanding official Glasto app, our machines have always helped us to get together and stay together, rather than get ahead and stay apart.
This year was a stunner: we worked, walked, danced, laughed and cried in unison. No AI prompts necessary. Here’s to good old-fashioned human connection!
Something noticed…
Artificial Intelligence processes data.
Applied Improvisation processes stories.
Our brains are wired for narrative - it’s how we make meaning of the world. Stories activate the brain’s sensory cortex, emotion centres, and mirror neurons. When we improvise, we don’t just tell stories: we live them. We co-create them. We connect.
As author and vulnerability researcher Brené Brown says: “Connection is why we’re here: it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives.”
No matter how clever AI gets, it doesn’t know how to make you feel seen. Improvisation does.
“The more we connect with technology, the more we must protect and nuture what makes us human” Gerd Leonhard, Futurist
Something new…
Gardening is my (Vic’s) new attention-seeker: specifically, lawns. The modern lawn, with its ‘groomed perfection’ ideal, is a classic symbol of colonialism and control. “A lawn is nature under culture’s boot”, wrote Michael Pollen in Second Nature.
I moved to a place that has an ailing lawn. To help it to thrive, I asked AI how to tend it. The internet advice was helpful but I felt removed from the whole ‘nature’ aspect and process. And ‘perfection’ - in this case: an immaculate uniform sward - is an exhausting, unattainable goal.
It was my AI with it’s ‘Yes, And’ chops that’s gained lawn-based results. Improv invites diversity and collaboration. A ‘can do, make do’ vibe. A willingness to get up close to the earth and nuture dandelions, daisies and clover. “Learn to love” as a gardener pal once told me.
One is clinical, controlled, strangled. The other is lush, messy and - when you get it right - thriving as its own ecosystem; needing only the lightest of touches to keep it on track.
Natural lawns FTW.
