Embracing AI

We need to shift from being impressed by AI to being immersed in it. The value it can bring to our personal & professional lives in immense. The tech is here. We just need to develop the right habits.

It's been almost two years since ChatGPT launched (November 30th, 2022). While AI has been making massive strides in the last few decades, this release punctuated into the mainstream. Chat GPT was the fastest-growing product to reach 100 million users (2 months). Social media feeds were packed with screenshots of conversations with this all-powerful AI.

And then the magic was over.

And then most of us went back to working the way we had always been working. But these were not just fun novelties. They were the seeds of a revolution in our daily work and life, waiting to be fully integrated. We just couldn't do that... yet.

Two years later, the opposite is true. The models are better, faster, and cheaper. The ability to integrate is not just easy; it's seamless. Hell… I watched a video of an 8-year old create a website with Cursor just by typing prompts.

I was so impressed I used the same stack to create a proof of concept. Typically, I'd ask my engineers at work to do this for me, and it might take a day or two. I did it in 30 minutes.

Still, after that moment, I went back to doing things the way I'd always done. You see, I had the epiphany, but I hadn't yet developed the habit. Habits are hard. And AI is so different in how we interact with it that it requires conscious intent to build that habit (at least for me).

To force myself to establish this habit, I made it a goal for everyone at my company. Rather than keep ignoring these productivity improvements, I asked everyone on the team to make at least one attempt per day to use AI in their routine activities. Ideally, most would try 5+ times. In doing so, we would all get to experience these dopamine hits more frequently and build the habit together.

I suggest you figure out some way to incentivize yourself to embrace AI daily. You could make it a game. Perhaps you get an accountability partner. Whatever it is, please do it. The ROI is immense, and it will only get better with time.