Most advice about AI at work is written by people selling AI. Here is a plainer version, based on what survived contact with actual deadlines.
The rule that decides everything
Reviewing a draft email takes ten seconds; writing one takes two minutes. Good trade. Checking whether a cited statistic is real takes five minutes; looking it up yourself takes two. Bad trade.
Where it genuinely helps
- First drafts of anything you would rewrite anyway. The blank page is the expensive part.
- Changing format. Notes to summary, transcript to actions. Nothing is invented, so nothing needs fact-checking.
- Explaining something in your own field. You spot a wrong answer immediately, which makes it safe.
- The first 20 minutes of a task you are avoiding. Reacting to something beats starting from nothing.
Where it quietly costs you
- Facts you cannot check quickly. Statistics, citations, legal detail.
- Work in a field you do not know. You cannot spot a plausible error in a subject you cannot assess.
- Anything where the thinking is the deliverable. If someone asked for your judgement, outsourcing it defeats the point.
- Short tasks. Writing the prompt takes longer than writing the two-line reply.
The trap nobody warns about
Reviewing plausible text is harder than writing from scratch. A confident, well-formatted, subtly wrong answer takes more effort to catch than a blank page takes to fill.
Editing fatigue is real. After the third polished draft your standards drop, and that is exactly when errors get through.
A workable division of labour
| You do | AI does |
|---|---|
| Decide what matters and why | Produce a first version |
| Supply the specifics and context | Restructure and reformat |
| Check anything checkable | Suggest what you missed |
| Own the final judgement | Never own the judgement |
Before you paste company data
Check whether your tier trains on your input, whether your employer has a policy, and whether the material is someone else’s confidential information. Consumer free tiers are usually the wrong place for client work, not because they are careless but because you have no agreement covering it.
Common questions
Will AI replace my job?
It replaces tasks, not jobs, and the tasks it replaces are usually the ones you liked least. The realistic risk is being outpaced by someone who uses it well for the boring half of the work.
Should my team have an AI policy?
Yes, and one page is enough. What may be pasted, which tools are approved, who to ask. Teams without a policy do not avoid AI use, they just do it unrecorded.
How do I stop it sounding generic?
Give it your own material to work from. Generic in, generic out.
