How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Prompt
From doubts to deliverables: making AI useful, secure, and human
There was a time I wouldn’t go near this stuff.
Even as someone who works in technology and data, I had real reservations about AI. Some were philosophical—privacy, control, what it meant for creativity. Others were practical. I wasn’t convinced the outputs were trustworthy. I saw AI as a novelty at best, and at worst, something that might erode the human spark that makes good work… well, good.
When people like Geoffrey Hinton (not related), one of the godfathers of AI, started raising alarms about the trajectory of the field, I took note. I wasn’t looking to hand over control of my ideas to a probabilistic machine.
I still carry a healthy skepticism. What’s changed isn’t that my doubts vanished—it’s that I’m far more informed about where AI helps and where it doesn’t. Understanding privacy controls, data handling, and concrete use cases has made me better at spotting overreach or gimmicks, while leaning into the parts that genuinely improve my work.
Fast forward to today, and I have a full-blown editorial operation powered, in part, by AI. I use it as a brainstorming partner. A ghost editor. A curator. A way to accelerate what used to take hours into something I can do in 15 minutes. Somewhere along the way, my fear turned into familiarity—and then into partnership.
So what changed?
There wasn’t a single lightning bolt moment. But if I had to point to a key turning point, it was the day I built my editorial style guide.
Like many people building a personal brand or publishing regularly, I wanted my voice to be consistent—sharp, curious, grounded, and persuasive. But maintaining that tone week after week is harder than it sounds.
So I prompted an AI assistant to help me codify it. What started as a rough sketch became a living document: my tone, my formatting, even my persuasion principles—all articulated clearly. The result wasn’t just more consistent writing. It was better writing. It felt like finding a mirror I could talk to.
I also realized something: I was learning. Working with AI forced me to articulate what I liked and didn’t like. It exposed blind spots. And it prompted me with questions I wasn’t asking myself. I began to feel less like a manager of a machine and more like a creative in dialogue with an extremely fast collaborator.
Let’s clear up a few misconceptions.
The first is that AI is just a fancier Google. It’s not. It’s not a search engine—it’s a reasoning engine. You don’t use it to find answers. You use it to refine your thinking.
Second, people assume you throw in a single prompt and out comes brilliance. Not true. The magic is in the iteration. The back-and-forth. The long walk, not the vending machine.
And the biggest misconception? That using AI somehow means you’re cheating. That it’s replacing your thinking. That’s like saying using Excel is cheating because you didn’t do the math by hand. This isn’t about shortcuts. It’s about leverage.
Four ways to use AI as a true creative partner
Build your own voice guide.
Prompt AI to analyze your writing and help you codify your style, tone, and formatting rules. You’ll clarify your own thinking and have a reusable benchmark for future work.Think in drafts.
Don’t expect perfection. Use AI to get to a rough first draft faster—and then iterate. Most of the value comes in round 2, 3, or 5.Let it ask you questions.
One of the best features is not the answers—but the questions. Let it challenge your assumptions. Ask it to poke holes in your argument. Treat it like a sparring partner.Integrate it into your systems.
I’ve built workflows where AI pulls in meeting transcripts, generates summaries, and even drafts follow-ups. This isn’t just about writing—it’s about workflows, too.
In the end, AI didn’t replace me. It refined me.
I don’t fear losing my edge anymore—I fear not adapting. My skepticism didn’t disappear; it matured. The more I understand how AI works and where it fits, the better I get at saying yes to real value and no to noise.
This isn’t about giving up control. It’s about partnering with a faster co-pilot while keeping your hands on the yoke. And when you do, you realize: the best ideas still come from you. AI just helps you get there faster.
“AI didn’t replace me. It refined me.”
If you’re curious how companies are starting their AI journeys—or how to move beyond the hype into real strategic value—feel free to reach out. At SEI, we help clients cut through the noise with practical, grounded AI assessments that lead to action.
💬 Let’s Talk
Have you had a turning point with AI? Are you still skeptical? I’d love to hear how you’re approaching it in your own work.