We live in a moment where AI is no longer about hype—it’s about unlocking real productivity. For many teams, the leap isn’t about if to use AI, but how. By carving out how to use it reasonably—and with intention—you can liberate time and energy for what truly matters.

Start by identifying low-leverage tasks—those recurring, necessary, but not differentiating work. Things like gathering datasets, summarizing reports, or formatting content. These are ideal candidates to delegate to AI. Let mundane clay be shaped by automation, freeing your team for innovation.

But automation isn’t enough. Context matters. When you ask AI to act, give it the full picture. Your audience, your values, the metrics you care about—all of that should be baked into your prompts. The more AI knows, the more relevant and actionable its output becomes.

Beyond inputs, treat your AI tools like collaborators, not order takers. Encourage feedback loops: refine its output, push back when it misses the mark, and iterate. Think of prompt design and “emotional cajoling” (yes—it works) as part of your toolkit to get better results.

Ultimately, using AI well means shifting your mindset. It’s not about replacing human creativity or judgment—it’s about offloading the heavy lifting, so you can amplify what makes you uniquely valuable. When done right, AI becomes the scaffold beneath your best ideas, not the frame that constrains them.