Meta is building a 2 GW data center so massive it could cover a significant portion of Manhattan. They’re investing $60-65 billion in 2025 alone.
But here’s what most people miss: all that computational power is worthless without quality first-party data. The kind only humans can provide.
The counterintuitive part? The more sophisticated their AI becomes, the more it depends on human-sourced data to function effectively.
Most people think advanced AI means fewer humans. I’ve seen the opposite working with hundreds of businesses at Aperitif. The algorithms are only as good as the human insight that feeds them.
The Compass and Engine Problem
AI provides the compute power. Humans provide the direction.
I worked with a finance company running extensive Meta ads campaigns. They were optimising for leads and getting massive volume. Meta’s algorithms were performing brilliantly by their own metrics.
The leads weren’t converting. They failed income verification checks.
When we shifted to optimising for actual conversions and fed quality first-party data back into the platform, ROI improved seven-fold. Same AI. Same compute power. Different human judgment about what mattered.
The AI was incredibly efficient at the wrong thing.
Why Sophisticated AI Craves Human Context
Poor data quality costs the US economy $3.1 trillion annually. Enterprises lose 20-30% of their revenue to data-related inefficiencies.
The problem isn’t computational power. It’s knowing what good looks like.
We built a compliance system for dental clients that uploads draft advertising materials against APHRA guidelines and flags potential breaches automatically. The AI handles the heavy lifting, but it needed human expertise first to understand what compliance actually means in practice.
The system couldn’t exist without both elements.
The Replacement Myth
Most businesses see AI as a replacement rather than an enhancement. They want to do simple things cheaper.
The magic lies in making teams superhuman. Completing tasks you never could before.
When everyone has access to the same 80% of knowledge, competitive advantage lives in the final 20%. That’s pure human ingenuity.
The ability to determine what the right first-party data is to feed the machine. The ability to make human connections in a world crying out for it. To take calculated risks.
To be bold and to live.
The Future of Human-AI Collaboration
I predict we’ll see one-person, billion-dollar businesses within the next five years.
Teams will be smaller, but expectations will be higher. Gartner predicts that 75% of CFOs will implement AI by 2025 to enhance decision-making.
The winners won’t be those who replace humans with AI. They’ll be those who amplify human judgment with computational power.
Meta’s massive infrastructure investment proves this point. They’re not building data centres to eliminate human input. They’re building them to scale human insight.
Even more telling is Meta’s recent push to court advertising agencies. They’re actively building what amounts to an army of specialists who can provide higher-quality first-party data.
This isn’t about reducing their reliance on human expertise. It’s about systematically expanding it.
The strategy reveals something fundamental about AI’s future. The more sophisticated the algorithms become, the more they need human partners who understand context, nuance, and what actually drives business outcomes.
What This Means for Your Business
Stop thinking about AI as a cost-cutting tool. Start thinking about it as an amplifier for human judgment.
The businesses that thrive will be those that get the human-AI balance right. AI handles the computational heavy lifting. Humans provide the context, judgment, and direction.
Focus on quality over quantity in your data. Train your AI systems to optimise for outcomes that actually matter to your business, not just metrics that look good on dashboards.
Most importantly, invest in developing that final 20% of human ingenuity that AI cannot replicate.
The ability to determine what good looks like. The ability to make genuine human connections. The courage to take calculated risks.
Meta’s building the future on this foundation. The question is whether you’ll join them or get left behind.
