At the beginning of this year, I set a goal of becoming AI native. When ChatGPT and AI made their mainstream boom a few years ago, I was a skeptic. My humanist side saw all the negatives to us as people. My environmentalist side saw all the emissions from endlessly spinning GPUs. Then my perspective changed.
As someone who grew up with early computers, I have been alive during a seismic shift in the way we live life. I remember bringing my encyclopedia collection to the library to donate it because I could access that information on the internet. I knew that AI was this seismic shift; I just had to find a way to rationalize it before I got left behind.
When you look around online, you see thought leadership posts on LinkedIn about how AI will increase your productivity, 10x your business, and allow you to pay for fewer employees. These are the reasons I wasn't an advocate for AI. But then I started to learn what these tools could actually do. I tested ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Notion AI, Gemini, and a few others. I ran them through my work and personal needs. What happened? I got administrative, mundane tasks done faster.
While that sounds boring and not as flashy as 10x'ing my revenue, it was a gateway for my perspective to change. I started thinking of practical applications for using AI. The biggest use case for me—writing client proposals. This was huge. Something that took me an hour, 2–3 times a week, now took me 5 minutes. Best part: that also includes sending it to them with a customized email.
At first, I thought the output would be robotic and stiff. But after learning about how to actually leverage AI, the output was really good. Not just good enough. Knowing how to prompt, plus providing the tool with the proper source material, it doesn't just sound like me—it is 80% me. I love the work I do, but I hate the admin cruft. It is draining and unfulfilling. These triggers are the perfect reason to use AI.
If you want an actual "how-to" of how I create these proposals, reply to this email and I might make an edition dedicated to that, plus other workflows.
This is simply one example and a fairly basic one. You might be wondering, are you able to send more invoices and take on more clients now? Are you making more money because of this? No. Not at all. Because my goal for AI is not more work, it's less of it. Specifically, the draining work I hate doing. But also, just less of it. Sending 2–3 proposals a week now takes me 15–20 minutes. Before that, 3–4 hours. Rather than hustling, I am not working those hours. That is the real benefit of AI.
A few months ago, I read a slide deck from Aimee Pedretti, who gave a talk here in Portland for AI Portland. She talks about a world where AI is so embedded in our work lives that it does all of the busy work for us, automatically. This allows us to think creatively and strategically. In this world we work 2 days a week and have the mental and physical capacity to live life fully.
The full deck can be found here.
Around the same time, I was reading book 1 of Scythe. In this series, there is a sentient AI called Thunderhead. It does all of the admin functions of life and work. There is no government, it saved the planet from humans, there is no war, and it makes working optional. While the book is not about AI, the Thunderhead is a core character in the narrative. The series is great! I am on book 2 now.
While we are likely a ways off from that world or the world that Aimee envisions, these ideas prove that AI could be more than a multiplier—it can be a tool for living a better quality life.
These ideas and my goals are what push me to test the limits of what our current and future AI tools offer. Yes, I know the downsides. I will continue to do the hard work, the long way, because that is the difference between good and great. But I will also use AI to do the things that drain me or keep me glued to my screen when I could be doing something more human. I will implement AI workflows for clients that want to 10x their productivity, no questions asked, as it is all about the value you see in the tool. I have only touched on AI's possibilities, but I see them clearly now, and for me—they do not increase output, they increase humanity.
Hi Thor. I'd be interested in specifically how you use AI