Something has been weighing on me, and I need to get it off my chest.
Every day I scroll through LinkedIn and see the same recycled takes about AI:
"The code isn't maintainable." "It's not clean." "You can't build real products with it."
And every time I read one of these posts, I think the same thing:
These people are using AI like it's Google.
They type a question. They get an answer. They copy-paste it somewhere. And when the result doesn't meet their expectations, they blame the tool. Not their approach. Not their lack of understanding. The tool.
That's like blaming a Formula 1 car for being hard to drive when you've only ever used a bicycle.
The Problem: You're Treating a Thinking Partner Like a Search Engine
Let me be blunt: if you think a large language model is just a smarter version of Google, and you keep using it that way, you will lose your job within three to five years. I'm 100% convinced of this.
Here's why.
The people who are getting extraordinary results with AI aren't smarter than you. They're not more technical. They haven't taken some secret course. They've simply learned to work with AI instead of just querying it.
There's a fundamental difference between asking AI a question and collaborating with it. When you collaborate, you provide context. You iterate. You push back on its output. You refine your prompts. You treat it like a co-pilot, not a vending machine.
The gap between people who understand this and people who don't is growing wider every single day. And it's about to become a canyon.
There Is No "One Model Does Everything"
Here's something that surprises most people when I tell them: I don't use one AI model. I use several, depending on the task.
One model might be exceptional at planning, reasoning, and breaking down complex problems. Another might excel at writing production-ready code. A third might be the best choice for designing user interfaces or generating creative content.
Knowing which model to use for which task — that's a skill. And it's a skill that only comes from spending real time with these tools.
You need to understand what each model excels at. You need to learn their strengths, their blind spots, their quirks. You need to develop an intuition for when to switch models mid-workflow because one will handle the next step better than the other.
This is the new professional literacy. And like any form of literacy, it takes practice. You can't read one article about it and call yourself proficient. You have to put in the hours.
Stop Using Free Models and Expecting Professional Results
I also need to address something that holds a lot of people back: they're using free models.
Free AI models are typically a year behind the cutting edge — sometimes even more. The difference between a free model and a top-tier paid model is not incremental. It's generational. It's like comparing a smartphone from 2015 to one from today. They're technically the same category of product, but the experience and capability gap is massive.
Right now, the models you should be investing in are tools like Claude Opus 4.6, GLM 5, and Codex 5.3. These are the models operating at the frontier. They understand nuance. They maintain context over long conversations. They produce output that — when guided properly — is genuinely production-ready.
If you're forming your opinion about AI based on a free chatbot experience, you're not evaluating AI. You're evaluating last year's technology with no investment in understanding how to use it. That's like test-driving a 1998 sedan and concluding that cars aren't worth buying.
My Challenge to You: One Hour a Day
I want to challenge you to do something specific.
Spend one hour per day using AI to tackle a problem you think is unsolvable. Not a quick question. Not "write me an email." A real, messy, complex problem — the kind you've been putting off because it felt too big, too complicated, or too time-consuming.
Give the model context. Explain what you've already tried. Tell it what constraints you're working within. Then let it work with you, not for you.
You'll be surprised at what happens. Not because AI is magic, but because you'll start to learn how to think with it. And once that clicks, everything changes.
Here's what that one hour will teach you:
- How to structure prompts that actually produce useful output
- When to push back on AI suggestions and when to trust them
- Which types of problems AI accelerates vs. which ones still need human judgment
- How to iterate on AI output to get from "good enough" to "excellent"
This isn't about replacing your expertise. It's about amplifying it.
The Divide Is Happening Right Now
We're in the middle of one of the most significant shifts in how knowledge work gets done. And people are sorting themselves into two camps.
Camp one: people who are investing time in learning how to work with AI. They're experimenting. They're failing. They're getting better. They're building workflows that make them dramatically more productive.
Camp two: people who tried AI once, got a mediocre result, and decided it's overhyped. They're posting hot takes on LinkedIn about how AI code isn't maintainable. They're using this as permission to not engage with the technology.
In three to five years, the people in camp one will be building the future. The people in camp two will be wondering what happened.
Which camp are you in?
I Can Help You Get Started
I've spent years building products and workflows with AI at the core. I've worked across multiple models, multiple use cases, and multiple industries. I know which models work best for which tasks, how to integrate AI into existing business processes, and how to get teams up to speed without the hype and without the confusion.
If you're a business owner, founder, or team lead who wants to actually implement AI into your company — not just talk about it, not just attend a webinar about it, but genuinely put it to work — I'd love to help.
Send me a DM. Let's figure out where AI fits in your business, which tools you should be using, and how to get your team from skeptical to productive.
Stop debating whether AI works. Start learning how to make it work for you.
P.S. Yes, this post is AI-generated. And I'm not hiding it. I spoke my thoughts out loud using Wispr Flow, talked to an AI model, explained exactly what I wanted to say, and it rewrote my words into the article you just read. Every idea, every opinion, every argument — that's all me. AI just helped me say it clearly. That's literally the point of this entire post.