Staying human in the age of AI. A personal framework for working with AI without outsourcing what makes us human.
I want to learn how to work with AI without losing sight of what makes my work, and me, human.
My aim is not to do as much as possible with AI.
It is to understand where AI can genuinely enhance the quality of my thinking, my work and my contribution to others.
That requires two forms of literacy, developed side by side:
Understanding what AI and large language models are, how they work, where they are capable and where they are not, and how to use them thoughtfully and responsibly.
Becoming better at listening, observing, questioning, interpreting, exercising judgement, making sense of complexity, building relationships and taking responsibility for action.
My human development is the purpose.
AI is one of the means.
I want AI to help me:
Not because AI has the answers for me, but because it can expand the space in which I think.
AI can help surface patterns I might otherwise overlook. It can introduce alternative perspectives, challenge assumptions and suggest connections I had not considered.
But ultimately, I decide what matters.
I want to work through four stages:
I start with my own intention.
Then I use AI to broaden and deepen my exploration.
I apply my own judgement to what emerges — questioning what is plausible, what is missing, what is useful and what does not stand up to scrutiny.
Only then do I act.
AI can generate possibilities.
I give them meaning.
I am happy to delegate cognitive work when doing so strengthens rather than diminishes my own thinking.
I may ask AI to:
But I will not outsource my:
I want to use AI primarily as a lens.
Not:
“AI tells me what is happening here.”
But:
“AI helps me explore what might be happening here.”
An AI-generated insight is not a conclusion. It is an invitation to look again.
A pattern is a hypothesis.
An answer is a starting point.
An unexpected response may be worth exploring precisely because it raises a better question.
The world remains the ultimate test.
I want to approach AI with curiosity and critical judgement in equal measure.
I want to experiment without becoming uncritical.
I want to explore what is possible without assuming that everything that can be automated should be automated.
I do not need to keep up with every new model, feature, platform, agent or productivity trick.
The pace of change makes that both unrealistic and, in many cases, unnecessary.
What matters to me is learning to recognise:
Which developments genuinely change something about the way I work, think or contribute?
So my question is not simply:
“What is new?”
It is:
“What is significant?”
I would rather develop a small number of practices that genuinely improve my work than accumulate a growing collection of tools that merely give me more things to try.
I do not want to optimise for maximum AI productivity.
A tool that saves me time but diminishes my attention, curiosity or professional craft is not necessarily an improvement.
Conversely, a use of AI that helps me understand someone more deeply, recognise a pattern, ask a better question or make a wiser decision may be immensely valuable, even if it saves little or no time.
For me, that is a more meaningful measure of progress.
Whenever I adopt a new way of working with AI, I want to ask:
Is AI making me better at using AI, or is it making me a better professional, coach and human being?
If the former becomes the goal, I may have lost my way.
If the latter is happening, I am probably moving in the right direction.
This is not a final position.
It is version 0.1.
I expect it to change as I learn more, experiment, encounter limitations and discover unexpected possibilities.
I do not want to have all the answers in advance.
I want to become better at finding my way deliberately.
Not simply learning what AI can do, but continually asking what we, as human beings, consider worth doing ourselves.
You do not need to be an AI expert to create a personal AI Compass.
In fact, I would suggest starting somewhere else entirely.
Don't begin with:
“Which AI tools should I learn?”
Begin with:
“What kind of professional, leader, entrepreneur or human do I want to be in a world where AI can do increasingly more?”
Then ask yourself:
Your answers will begin to form your own compass.
It is not there to help you follow AI.
It is there to help you keep choosing your own direction as the landscape changes.