genAI does not have real-world experience which may cause more problems than expected!

Computerworld.com reported that “The pressure for businesses to leverage generative AI (genAI) or agentic AI is massive, but when I hear executives complaining that there is no way to compete against businesses leveraging the fast-moving technology, I’m forced to chuckle.” The January 7, 2026 article entitled “Companies can compete against AI by delivering what AI can’t” (https://www.computerworld.com/article/4114017/companies-can-compete-against-ai-by-delivering-what-ai-cant.html) included these reasons “Real-world expertise” on why not to trust AI:

Some executives talk about leveraging expertise as a way to compete against genAI. That is a decent point, but it has to be information that beats genAI.

Consider a law firm. Even more narrowly, consider case law, where attorneys try to find precedent for an argument they want to make. At one level, genAI tools can win that battle. They literally can memorize every word of every court decision — globally, if need be. No lawyer can do that.

But case law research is not merely about reading cases. The attorney needs to understand the intent, the nuances of a case and the relevant history. No genAI system can do that.

Early in my reporting career, I was a full-time court reporter for a daily newspaper. One afternoon, I found myself in the courthouse basement in the law library. In the back, I saw the managing partner of one of the state’s largest law firms, flipping through books. 

I asked him why he was doing such work when he could easily assign it to a more junior lawyer. He smiled and said, “I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I routinely find obscure cases that these young hotshots would never find. I simply know where to look and how to interpret them.”

That is precisely the kind of mastery that will elude genAI.

Another example is in an area close to where I live: journalism. Some media outlets are trying to use genAI to write stories. There are some very basic stories where that might work , such as routine weather reports, maybe sports scores and perhaps even obituaries.

But the ultimate story is what used to be known as “man bites dog” and today is simply “surprising the reader.” To do that, a reporter must find things that readers don’t know and that contradicts what they do know. That is exactly what genAI cannot do. Everything the technology churns out is simply a reworded version of what has already been said. 

If you look at fiction writers, such as those writing movie or television scripts, a similar discovery is made. GenAI could replace really bad writers. But the nature of genAI would almost certainly prevent it from writing hit shows where audiences are quoting lines the next day. 

What do you think?