This is a moment in time.
The AI wave is big and real. Whatever you think about the future, the usage (close to a billion weekly users — 700m use ChatGPT each week) is unprecedented. For many, many CIOs and CEOs, it’s the main agenda.
So many of us are ensconced in knowledge work. Much of that can now be done at least moderately well — and in some cases excellently — by AI today. More of this will come as capabilities improve and as we find more and more ways of utilising it (use cases).
We’re all already spending time on things that can be done by AI. In your job as well as outside — at home, in relationships, on self-care, on learning. Not whole jobs or tasks, necessarily, but parts within them. For example:
Work: “Draft an onboarding plan for a junior PM. Tone: warm but direct. Include a 30-60-90 outline, three KPIs, and a first-week buddy brief. Less than 200 words.” Paste to AI → edit it yourself → send.
Life: “Write a firm but fair email to my building manager about the drilling that’s occurring at 06:30. Include dates (XYZ) for three incidents, a request for quiet hours (9–17h), and propose compensation (½ month service fee). Tone to be polite, not legalistic.” Paste to AI → edit it yourself → send.
Perhaps you guessed that those two examples were drummed up by AI (and then edited). A part with in the task (of writing this newsletter). For the avoidance of doubt, the rest of this was human-written.
Your, our, my, human intentions are the absolute key here. In several ways.
We can and should get AI to do more for us. That means being intentional and precise about what that “more” might be. In the building manager example above, it’s a pain to write that unpleasant copy out yourself. But the AI needs a clear instruction. Investing just a little time in making that clear for yourself — what happened, what tone, what outcome — AI can then take the reins and produce practically word-perfect, relevant copy in seconds, saving you minutes or hours as well as keeping your mind on more positive, constructive thoughts.
AI takes over to free us up. The 30 minutes you might have spent writing that complaint email can now be used in some other way. Observe that difference. Mark it by using the time specifically, for some better purpose. This opportunity seems analogous to me with what happened with domestic appliances — especially the washing machine — last century, which helped free up hours at home and opened new possibilities, substantially for women.
But AI is also a threat. I mean to each of us, personally. It encroaches on our agency, freedom, autonomy and intentions. It reaches us through social media feeds and automations, and even its very existence affects how — and how much — we think. As its power waxes, don’t let yours wane. Think even more carefully about what you spend time on, and don’t let external intelligences — carbon- or silicon-based — impinge on that.
I’ve been thinking over the summer that timeboxing is the tonic we need in this new AI era.
Action: in your next query with AI, try being more exacting on yourself about what you want to get back, what the AI needs to know, what you actually intend.
Marc
Links you may like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
Timeboxing, el libro (Español)
Connect with me on LinkedIn
I don't use AI to write those things, but I do dictate things into my notes app and have AI clean them up. Better use of my time, personally.