"I don't see where these tools actually fit into my work."

I hear this constantly in workshops. I hear it from managers, from marketing teams, from executives. And it's not because they lack creativity or intelligence. It's because most of us were never trained to see our work as a system.

We're so embedded in our own processes that we struggle to see the connections. The very places where AI offers the most leverage.

That’s why I want to share a simple, 15-minute method I use to help people get past that block. It doesn’t require new technical knowledge. It works with your exact tasks and your existing workflows.

It needs just a little bit of a mindset shift.

Let’s start, shall we?

First, focus on just one upcoming task

Don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick one real thing on your to-do list. For me, it’s preparing for an upcoming client work where we'll be deconstructing the process of building personalized AI assistants.

That’s my one thing. I'll fire up a Miro or FigJam board and put that end goal on a single post-it note.

Second, think broadly about the components

Now, ask yourself: what smaller pieces of work need to exist for me to complete this task?

To prepare for my client work, I'll need:

• A presentation deck.

• A few exercises designed for beginners (and a small group of intermediates)

• My personal "best practices" cheat-sheet.

• Examples of my own assistant usage.

• Speaker notes to keep me on track. (because I often like to drift away with the narrative)

• A way to repurpose some existing materials for this specific audience.

Let's get those onto the board. Notice how we're deconstructing the big task into smaller pieces?

Finally, select between automation and your expertise

Look at the system I’ve just mapped out. This is where you find your use cases.

I use a simple color code. For every component, i ask myself two questions:

Is this step about gathering, summarizing, or creating a first draft? (Green - a great candidate for AI assistance)

Does this step depend on my unique taste, judgment, or strategic experience? (White - this is where I, the human, should lead)

For my client work, I can use an LLM to help design exercise variations or draft speaker notes from my existing materials. I can ask my own assistant to summarize my most common usage patterns. These are the green cards.

But the final presentation structure, the choice of examples, and the core of the best practices cheat-sheet? That relies on my taste and experience. Those stay white.

Suddenly, I’ve gone from "I need to prepare for a workshop, and client work" to a clear map of what I need to do, where I can strategically plug in AI, and where my own expertise is irreplaceable.

I am no longer just doing a task. I am directing a system.

The real challenge isn’t in prompting or using a thousand techniques to get the job done. This kind of exercises on your own task or project will show you more about what you need to learn next, and what other AI use cases will emerge in the coming weeks or months.

What is the one task you could map out this week?

(PS. If you need help, you can always reach out by replying to this email or DM-ing me on LinkedIn. I would love to help.)

Before I planned the trip, I wanted to learn more about the difference between two slightly similar activities that I can track using the Garmin watch on my wrist.

For the first time, I consciously noticed how my relationship with the process of getting answers has changed.

I opened the app, asked a question with my voice, and expected to immediately get a straight-up answer. And I got it.

Without clicking blue links, without changing the tabs to compare information, I let the LLM decide what to serve me.

It’s nothing new. Multiple studies show this behavioral change and how our brains are getting used to having answers without friction. Just accepting them, without any second thought.

It’s a blessing. But it's also dangerous if done unconsciously. (that’s a story for another time).

That, and other experiences made me realize that I need somehow to keep myself grounded. Often without convenience that AI brings - while on the other hand quickly eroding my own agency.

I've started using a set of questions to follow the purpose, not act like on autopilot.

Maybe they will help you too.

1. Where am I clinging to old habits out of comfort, instead of exploring a better way?

2. What am I intentionally choosing NOT to do, to protect my focus from interesting distractions?

3. What part of my work today comes from a perspective that only I can bring?

4. Am I truly learning something new, or am I just repeating patterns that feel productive?

5. What uncomfortable idea or a set of thoughts am I avoiding that holds the key to my growth?

You can treat them as a map to find your own leverage.

Each question helps me spot a personal 'point of failure' - a place where my focus could break. When I think about managing critical points of failure, my mind goes to one of the most ambitious projects in engineering history - The James Webb Space Telescope.

When launched, it had 344 (!) single points of failure. (here’s the superb documentary from NASA if you’re a space geek like me).

You can’t control all of your potential points of failure. But you can absolutely control the things that you will focus on in the coming weeks or months.

Let it be skills, projects, or just things that you want to learn.

Ask yourself some of those questions, and see where they take you.

Which one would be the first?

The screen was blank, and so was my mind. For a moment, I was confused.

For more than a decade, writing was like breathing to me. In my journalist days, I built a career on my ability to find the right words, structure an argument, and let the ideas flow onto the page. It was a muscle, exercised daily.

But recently, I had a truly uncomfortable realization.

I sat down to write, deliberately closing my LLM stack to start from a pure blank page. And the process felt… foreign. Clumsy. The familiar rhythm, and feeling was gone. The muscle I had relied on for so long felt weak, as if it hadn't been properly used in months.

It wasn't a sudden failure. It was the result of a slow, unconscious but steady erosion.

A side effect of artificial intelligence I call the "competence drain."

You might have felt it too, even if you haven't put a name to it.

It can feel like a superpower at first, delegating tasks to AI. You can do more, faster.

But think about it for a second. When you delegate writing a tricky email, analyzing data, or even outlining a business strategy entirely to AI, what are you NOT doing? You're not wrestling with the problem, not flexing your analytical muscles, not practicing the nuances of communication.

You get the output, sure. But the process - the part where your learning and skill maintenance happens - gets constantly skipped. And unfortunately - as any bad habit - it compounds over time.

I’ve experienced this firsthand. Over the last 6 months, I was more and more tempted to outsource parts of my writing to LLMs. I recently realized that my own ability to structure arguments and articulate ideas from scratch had noticeably weakened. The very skill that built my career. The one that I was proud of (and praised for) for years.

I was becoming reliant, not augmented. It felt like my brain was getting lazy, opting for the pre-chewed solution instead of doing the work itself.

I started asking myself some questions - how do we fight this? How do we use these powerful tools without letting our own skills atrophy? I don't have a perfect solution, but along the way I've started developing a mental framework to guide my own choices. Maybe it will help you too.

It’s about consciously deciding which "mode" to operate in for any given task:

The Architect Mode

This is for when I have a clear idea but need to delegate the groundwork. I use the AI to draft outlines, structure thoughts, or summarize research. The AI builds the scaffolding, but I am the one who ensures the foundation is solid and does the creative work of finishing the building. This frees up my cognitive energy for the details that matter most.

The Sparring Partner Mode

Here, I don’t want answers; I want better questions. I use the AI to challenge my ideas, play devil's advocate, and help me see my arguments from different angles. This isn't delegation; it's active collaboration that sharpens my thinking rather than replacing it. It often unveils things that I miss or even more interesting angles to choose.

Think of the AI as a world-class personal trainer. A good trainer doesn't lift the weights for you. They push you to do one more rep, correct your form, and suggest new exercises to challenge you. Using AI this way strengthens your own intellectual muscles, making your final arguments more robust and well-rounded.

The No-Fly Zone

This is the most important part. I’ve started to consciously define which skills are off-limits for AI. For me, it's the final nuance of writing in my own voice, the strategic decision-making based on intuition, and the empathetic read of a complex situation. These are the skills I must protect and exercise myself, every time.

I see this as the airline captain making the final call during an emergency. The aircraft's advanced autopilot can navigate the route, analyze weather data, and manage the engines. But when severe turbulence hits or the engine shuts down mid flight, and the situation is critical, it is the captain's experience, judgment, and intuition that are needed to land the plane safely. That final, gut-level command is the one thing you can't delegate. It’s the source of your unique value.

This isn't about rejecting the incredible leverage AI gives you. It’s about being deliberate.

It's about asking yourself before you hit "generate":

Is this task strengthening my capability, or is it creating a dependency that will make me weaker in the long run?

Your future competence might depend on the answer.

But now, I'm curious. Have you ever felt this "competence drain" in your own work?

What's one skill you would intentionally place in your "no-fly zone"?

Life happened.

Client work, workshops, events, and reflections have kept me occupied in the recent months. In the meanwhile I was also thinking a lot about how much pleasure I’ve found writing for people in this form - and I was mad at myself that I’ve dropped it.

To be completely honest, it was also about the lack of sharp focus, and a bit of a burnout from trying to squeeze as many thoughts as possible into short LinkedIn format. They say that everything has a purpose so I believe that this old rule worked also this time.

Last year led me to a clearer purpose for this newsletter, and I am excited to be back to share it with you.

Going forward, this space will be dedicated to exploring something I believe (and see almost everyday)is crucial: helping people (and myself along the way) build systems, mindset, and techniques to design a space where humans and AI naturally collaborate.

Okay, I get it. You can ask (and please always ask questions) - ‘man, okay, but what does it mean for me, and why should I care?’

I would love to share with you how:

• Critical thinking is changing in the age of AI, and what you can do to stay sharp.

• Humans, and machines can work best together, and where you will lose with the algorithm, as well as where the algorithm can’t compete with you.

• I do the work daily, and what conversations I am having around AI with clients, people, and in between business. With all good, and bad things happening.

• New developments look like through the lens of integration, and being worth your time to dive into.

Essentially, I want this place to be a space where we can think deeply about how we can leverage our human skills to create effective partnerships with technology that not only enhance us but also drive business results.

After completing almost 20 workshops with various companies this year I’ve found myself constantly asking: What does 'natural' collaboration with AI actually look and feel like, and how do we thoughtfully design for it? Without fear, and with intention, and agency.

You know that I like to ask questions, sometimes the hard ones. I hope that we will explore them together.

Thank you for sticking around. I’m looking forward to restarting this conversation with you. If you’re still there, please give me a sign as a reply to this email.

If you’re not interested - I wouldn’t be mad at all. Things change, and it’s all a natural cycle. I would love you still to give me a chance for one more mail.

Hope that you’re having an amazing weekend - wherever you’re right now.

Alex