Author’s Note: While many of you are already familiar with AI, I’m posting this because you're likely helping train others. We all need effective ways to explain the transformation underway and to help others use this technology wisely. Let me know if this was helpful and please feel free to forward it to others.

November 30, 2022 the nature of work changed in a serious way.

You may not have been aware of the transformation on that very date, however you certainly were confronted with a decision after that day: Will you use AI?

In of spite of my prior history of building AI systems, I was a reluctant user of generative AI. I’ve come around thanks to friends who were bleeding edge adopters and taught me more about it. Since that nudge, I use AI everyday and continue to find interesting uses for AI. I’d now consider myself a solid user of AI. Unfortunately, in the same period of time, I have seen a lot of AI being used poorly and that’s what inspired my writing today. I wanted to provide some context and background with my observations on using AI. Let’s dive in.

Observation 1: AI without context is pretty worthless.

At present we are in the age of Generative AI. Yes, there is Agentic AI, but for this post I’m focusing on the AI systems (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) most people have access to and can use today out of the box. The “Generative AI” name gives away the highest use of the systems today: generating things like code, content, images, videos, writing, etc.

These systems rely on the context that humans supply to generate the content. The better the context, the better the content generated. AI has no ability to capture context from the world or the context of the work at hand, except for the input and guidance provided by humans. So AI is great at content and not great at context.

It turns out that the exact opposite is true for humans: generating content is hard for humans and time consuming. But gathering context is easy.

For example, I’m slowly typing out this email (not using AI). So not very great by comparison to AI. However, I’m GREAT at having the full context of what I want to write about because I’m the one with the observations on life, the audience to which I’m speaking, what time they might be likely to read this, and hundreds of other nuanced things that influence the generation of this email.

So the scorecard for humans and generative AI would be as follows:

Human’s win at context. AI is great at content.

Together humans and AI can get a lot done at high quality hence the transformation that is underway.

Observation 2: Be Careful. Train Up.

AI has definitely sped up my ability to meet the world more efficiently and effectively. However, in many cases, I need to ensure that I'm using AI systems that protect my private information and that of my clients, or avoid inputting information into systems that will use my data for training purposes.

Not everyone knows this, and early on, there were some significant failures by users who did not adequately protect themselves and their clients' data. At this point in time, everyone should receive training on AI usage. In fact, many major corporations are training their entire workforce on using AI—not only because of the benefits but also to mitigate liabilities.

Companies that neglect to train employees on generative AI expose their companies to significant risks including:

• Security Vulnerabilities: Unsecured AI usage by untrained employees can cause data breaches and security incidents.

• Compliance and Legal Issues: AI ignorance by employees can cause legal violations, compliance failures, fines, lawsuits, and damaged reputation.

• Operational Inefficiencies: Untrained employees hinder AI's effectiveness, leading to missed chances for automation, productivity, and innovation, leaving the company vulnerable in the market.

• Increased Employee Turnover: Job satisfaction declines when employees lack preparation or support for new technologies, resulting in higher turnover and recruitment costs.

• Reputation Damage: AI mishandling due to lack of training can cause errors, poor decisions, or unethical outcomes, harming the company's reputation.

So should you use AI and train your team on using AI? 1000%, yes!

Observation 3: Human Intelligence Needed

Just like in the world before AI, humans STILL need to understand the output required for the task being attempted. Humans remain responsible for the output, not AI. However, this distinction gets blurred with AI because users often assume that AI is fully intelligent and all-knowing, when in reality, it isn't. In many cases, AI can be flat-out wrong—and confidently presents incorrect information as correct.

Case in point: I teach entrepreneurship classes at a local college. Last year, several students turned in pro forma financials that were so off from what we taught in class I was perplexed. I had given a lecture on building financial models and provided numerous examples of financial models in Excel files (which were the intended outputs of the exercise). Yet, the students still submitted incorrect Excel files - unlike any pro forma I’d seen before and the financials didn’t make sense. Then it hit me: they must have been using AI. I took out an old business plan and asked an AI tool to generate the pro forma financials for it. Guess what? The AI-generated financial model was nearly identical to what the students had submitted—in other words, completely incorrect. Yet the students believed the AI-generated model was correct and trusted it. This is an extreme example, but even experienced adult workers sometimes submit AI-produced work containing errors. The reason is that humans either don't recognize the errors or fail to adequately review the work product.

So the lesson here is be careful. You can definitely screw things up by:

• Not knowing what you are doing and thinking that the AI system does.

• Kind of knowing what should be produced, but not being able to evaluate it.

• Not checking the output and blindly pass it along.

AI and QA are Separate Functions

Observation 4: Guard Your Reputation

When you use AI to produce work, it's your work. It represents you. Imagine if, instead of using AI, you had a new intern work on a project that you would be presenting to others. Those receiving the work would believe that what you're providing is your own work product. Therefore, you're assessed on the quality of that work, not your intern. The same principle applies to AI.

Part of the issue is people thinking they are being helpful and using AI to helpful. Here’s where people mess this up:

1) Literally just sending something totally made by AI and not disclosing it (when it obviously was). This doesn’t reflect well on them and their work.

2) Even worse: “Helping” out someone by taking on a task but only really having AI do it and sending it along as if it was your own work (when it was obviously made by AI). The problem here is I could have done that myself — I don’t need another person to use AI.

If I Can Do the Same Thing with AI that You Did with AI,

It’s Not Really Valuable Work

This seriously harms your reputation as a co-worker, leader, and contributor. You're not helping your colleagues if you volunteer for projects, simply run them through AI, and return them without careful consideration. Your colleagues can do that themselves—and likely will, if you continue this practice.

If you genuinely add value beyond the AI-generated output by editing, thinking, strategizing, refining, and ensuring the work meets the required quality standards, then you're providing real assistance. However, simply inputting something into AI, copying and pasting the result, and sending it out thoughtlessly is a complete waste of time, easily recognized, and disingenuous.

Protect your reputation when using AI by correctly employing it to enhance your own work.

Observation 5: Disclose AI Use

Disclosing the use of AI may or may not be necessary depending on the circumstances of the project you are working on. However, you should know that there are a lot of tells that you are using AI. So when you don’t disclose that you are using AI then you are exposing yourself to reputation risk. How will people know:

1) People know you and prior work — so they know you from the AI products you are producing.

2) There are interesting artifacts in posts, writings, and other work products that clearly indicate you used AI and just copied and pasted — so people will know that you were/are taking short cuts.

3) There are outlets, work settings, and other requirements where AI should not be used and/or the use of AI requires disclosure and failing on this requirement could be lead to consequences for you.

Ultimately, you need to really think about your career, your reputation, and your brand when you are choosing to use AI. Be very careful. When in doubt disclose that you used AI in your work.

Observation 6: The Rise of Authentic Intelligence

AI predicts. Humans decide.

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally a system of pattern recognition and prediction. It draws on massive datasets to forecast likely outcomes which would be the next words, the next moves, the next pixels, etc.

AI can’t choose a path. It cannot take a stand on a topic. AI will not carry the burden of a decision forward. It cannot be held accountable.

Human Intelligence is is defined not just by data processing, but by decision-making that includes values, intuition, all the context, and a ton of courage.

In a world of increasingly perfect predictions, it’s our imperfect, principled decisions that distinguish authentic intelligence. Going forward keep this in mind as you use AI in your daily lives and wonder what role humans will play in the future.

Conclusion

We’re not just navigating a technological shift; we have entered into a new era of responsibility in how we live and work. While the question in recent years may have been Will you use AI?, the question now is How will you show up for your colleagues, friends, and family in a world shaped by AI and your choices around it? The future belongs to those who know when to smartly delegate to machines with integrity and still use our most human traits of courage, judgment, integrity, and clarity.

Hopefully these observations were helpful to you. If you would like to get personalized strategies, clarity, and direction—completely free—book a complimentary session with me now and take the next step toward unlocking your potential and building momentum.

Spaces are limited, so grab yours while you can!