When I first started working with AI, there was a lot of back and forth. And a lot of settling.
It would hand me something, and I’d think, well, AI thought of this. Why would I push back on it?
So I didn’t. I took whatever outline or process it suggested and worked around it. Some of it fit. A good chunk of it was close enough. That’s a sneaky place to land, because close enough still isn’t yours.
What I’ve found since is that you do need to push back.
You question how it’s doing things and keep questioning until it works the way you want it to. It’s a lot like training anybody else. The difference is that once AI is where you want it, it does the job the same way every time. It doesn’t skip the steps that matter to you, and often it catches the ones I would have missed.
What I hand over
These days I run most of my business with AI beside me.
It drafts emails. It drafts blog posts. When I have an idea for a product, I babble the whole thing out, and AI turns that babble into an outline and helps me figure out what I’m actually trying to make.
Where it really earns its keep is the mundane stuff, the work I’d put off or never get to at all. Tracking my numbers is the big one.
My free Quiet Compass quiz asks people to place themselves in one of four stages. When AI pulled the numbers together for me, the picture was hard to miss: most people were placing themselves in the early stages, and only a fraction were at the point the course I’d been building was meant for.
That would have taken me a long time to see on my own. And it changed what I’m building next, which I’ll tell you more about soon.
What I keep
Here’s my line, and it’s a wide one. Everything to do with my business starts with me and ends with me.
AI is an advisor. It helps me brainstorm and work through what I’m deciding, and sometimes it gives me the flat, black-and-white “it’s either this or this” view I need to get unstuck.
But the idea is mine. The final edits on every email and post are mine. Every detail of what goes into an offer is mine.
AI can draft, sort and count. The idea and the final yes stay mine.
When it hands something back, I look at it the way I would if a person had made it. I ask questions until I understand what it did. It isn’t perfect, and I have to keep my eyes on that.
And a lot of the deciding still comes down to gut feeling. Does this feel right? Should this even go to AI in the first place?
If you’ve been using AI and something it gave you felt a little off, that feeling is worth listening to. It doesn’t mean you’re behind on the technology. It means you’re the one who knows what your business is for.
So I’m curious where you draw your line.
Tell me one thing you’d never hand over to AI.
You can leave yours in the comments below.
If you’d like to see which stage your own business is in, the Quiet Compass is free and takes about two minutes.
Build quietly, rebel loudly.It’s your business, your energy and your rules.