New research shows AI remains clueless about human social interactions and that’s a major warning for brands banking on ‘emotional AI’ marketing
Artificial intelligence can beat chess grandmasters, compose symphonies, and generate mind-blowing visuals but when it comes to understanding real human interactions, it’s still fumbling in the dark.
A new American study led by cognitive scientists at Johns Hopkins University has revealed just how far AI lags human intuition.
Despite advances in video, image, and language models, AI systems still struggle to interpret the subtle, dynamic world of human social behaviour — the very lifeblood of authentic marketing.
In the study, over 350 AI models were exposed to short, three-second videos showing various social situations.
Meanwhile, human participants were asked to rate the intensity of the interactions they observed.
The results were striking — while humans consistently displayed a shared and nuanced understanding of the scenes, AI models faltered — badly.
Video-based AI had significant difficulty even recognising whether characters were communicating with each other, let alone interpreting the underlying emotions or intentions.
Language models performed slightly better, but only when spoon-fed human-written descriptions.
On their own, machines still fell dramatically short of grasping the complex, dynamic social dance that humans navigate daily without even thinking.
For Leyla Isik, the study’s lead author, this blind spot is a major red flag.
“Any time you want an AI to interact with humans, you want it to be able to recognise what people are doing,” she cautions.
Imagine a self-driving car unable to predict whether a pedestrian is about to cross the road or a customer service chatbot oblivious to a frustrated tone.
The crux of the problem?
AI models are primarily built to process static images, inspired by parts of the human brain that deal with still visuals.
Yet real life — and human emotion — is a moving, unfolding story. AI, as it stands today, can capture the frame — but misses the plot.
For marketers eagerly embracing “emotional AI” and predictive engagement tools, the study is a timely reality check.
Yes, AI can personalise content, target offers, and even mimic empathy to an extent but the deeper, instinctive nuances of human connection remain out of reach.
As brands race to automate everything from customer service to content creation, there’s a growing risk of tone-deafness — of failing to read the real emotional temperature of consumers.
In a world where authenticity and emotional intelligence define brand loyalty, that’s a risk few can afford.
The message from the research is clear: while AI will continue to transform marketing, the human touch is irreplaceable — not despite its complexity, but because of it.
Brands that remember this will lead; those that forget may find their AI-driven “empathy” falling flat in a world that still craves real human understanding.
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