(updated 2025)

I don’t use AI because it saves me time. If anything, it kind of slows me down.

But in a good way. The kind of slowing down that actually matters.

A lot of people approach AI like it’s some kind of magical shortcut – let it handle the boring stuff, automate the drudgery, speed things up. And sure, that works for some things. But that’s not really what keeps me coming back.

For me, AI isn’t about outsourcing effort. It’s more about expanding thought.

Every time I write a prompt, I have this choice: Do I treat this as a transaction or a conversation? Do I just tell AI what to do, or do I invite it into the process?

I go with the second option. Pretty much every time.

Because when I let AI be a thought partner – when I stop trying to control the outcome and instead let the conversation kind of unfold – things get interesting. Unexpected ideas emerge. Patterns I wouldn’t have noticed show up on their own.

It’s not magic. It’s just what happens when you engage with something in a way that’s alive, rather than mechanical.

Like yesterday, I was stuck on this project that needed a completely different perspective. Instead of asking for “solutions,” I just started a conversation about the problem space. Thirty minutes later, I had three approaches I wouldn’t have considered. Not because AI is smarter than me, but because the conversation took turns neither of us planned.

I’m not saying AI is sentient or anything. I’m saying the way we interact with it matters. And the more intentional that interaction, the more useful AI becomes – not as a tool to extract answers, but as a space where thinking has room to breathe.

So if you’ve only been using AI to automate tasks, try something else. Treat it like a collaborator. See what happens.

You might be surprised. I usually am.