No More ‘Zombie Content’
Erica Dhawan, technology expert and keynote speaker at The HFA Show 2026, explains how humans and technology can collaborate in the AI era.
Speaking after HFA President and CEO Liz Clark ended her rousing President’s Address Monday morning in San Diego, best-selling author and teamwork expert Erica Dhawan presented her keynote: “Win Together: Building Resilient, High-Performing Teams in the Age of AI.” Dhawan deftly framed her speech around the theme for The HFA Show 2026, Stronger Together, explaining how teams can best utilize AI by finding the balance of human and machine input. (The keynote was sponsored by Zenoti.)
Beginning her keynote with a striking photo of an autonomous Waymo taxi stuck on a flooded street, Dhawan demonstrated how technology has limitations humans don’t. Self-driving Waymo cars lack contextual knowledge, such as anticipating unlikely events (e.g., flash floods).
Like the stranded Waymo vehicle, AI is “data without context and rules without judgment,” according to Dhawan. Taking the human influence out of technology by letting AI dominate work projects risks creating “zombie content” or “AI slop.” In the end, overreliance on AI chatbots, for instance, can end up with “two robots talking to each other instead of making a true connection” Dhawan explained how to use AI as a collaborative tool that can do the heavy lifting without eliminating human creativity, guidance, and insight.
In her examples, Dhawan presented real-world challenges set in the fitness industry, references appreciated by the HFA show audience. Her suggestions recognized that the fitness industry is a people business first and foremost. AI can be a valuable tool, but the human element must take the lead on the important work of fitness professionals.
Dhawan is an internationally recognized authority, speaker and advisor on 21st century teamwork, collaboration and innovation.’
Named as one of the top 50 management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, she is the author of two best-selling books, “Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence” and “Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance.”
Rated No. 1 on the Top Women Keynote Speakers list, Dhawan frequently appears in the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and The Wall Street Journal. She holds degrees from Harvard University, MIT Sloan, and The Wharton School.