When people talk about AI, it’s usually about speed, automation and efficiency. What they rarely ask is something much harder:
Can AI help convey emotional truth?
And even more challenging:
Can it play a meaningful role in palliative care – one of the most sensitive areas of human life? For us, this was not a theoretical question. Through our work with the non-profit initiative “Superhelden fliegen vor” (Superheroes Fly Ahead), we were confronted with a reality most creative and tech teams never truly encounter: the emotional depth, fragility and dignity that come with accompanying young palliative patients and their families.
That changes the way you think about communication. And it changes the way you think about technology.
Why this question matters
In most industries, AI is measured by a single criterion:
Does it make the work faster? In palliative care, that standard isn’t enough. Speed means very little if the result feels distant, cold or emotionally false. In a context shaped by illness, care and mortality, the real question is different:
Can technology support dignity, memory and emotional resonance without flattening the human experience?
That is a much higher standard. And it requires far more human guidance.
AI is not emotional in itself.
It only becomes meaningful through human care, context and intention.Mirko I Eliah GOGO
What we explored
Together with “Superhelden fliegen vor”, we explored two questions in parallel.
First, how AI could support internal workflows by reducing friction and saving time – in a resource-conscious non-profit environment. Second, whether AI could also help create emotional communication in an extremely sensitive setting – not by replacing human experience, but by opening up a different narrative space where language alone sometimes reaches its limits.
This question took concrete shape in the partly AI-generated short documentary “Love your Existence” .
At its centre is Nene, an AI-generated symbolic character who represents the many palliative patients the initiative has supported over time. Nene was never meant as a gimmick or as a substitute for a real person. The character was created as a carrier of memory, vulnerability and emotional presence.
That was the turning point.
Because suddenly, AI was no longer just a tool for efficiency.
It became part of a form of storytelling shaped by tenderness, dignity and care.
So can AI create feelings?
Not on its own. AI feels nothing. It doesn’t grieve. It understands nothing about mortality. The same is true of a book or a CD in itself. They all have to be filled with human experience. But they can all support emotional storytelling when guided by people who understand it – who have lived the story themselves. That’s the difference.
In other words:
AI can support emotional communication. Through what it does and says, an AI avatar can become someone who moves you. But it cannot replace human depth on its own.
What we learned
This work taught us three things.
1. Sensitive contexts require more human guidance, not less.
The more delicate the topic, the less automation can stand on its own.
2. Symbolic AI characters can carry emotional meaning.
Handled with care, they can create space for empathy, reflection and dignity.
3. Innovation belongs in care, too.
AI shouldn’t only be discussed in the language of business, scalability and productivity. It also needs to be explored in the areas where our humanity is tested most.
Final thought
Most discussions about AI still revolve around efficiency. But if AI is to matter culturally, it also has to prove itself where dignity matters more than speed. Our work with “Superhelden fliegen vor” has shown us that AI can have its place there – not as a replacement for care, but as a tool in its service. And that may be one of the most important questions we can ask of this technology.
