Excellent. There are however a few lower level tasks where I think I do get some productivity, but maybe i'm too lazy to spot hallucinations ;-). Example:
- Document format conversion: take this PDF full of data and make it an excel
- Review these 4-5 large documents and spot inconsistencies. (and I know the AI may miss a few but I don't have time to read all the docs)
- Tasks that are very language related like: translation, summary, transcript
- Search and search related task: read my customer database and enrich the location with a category that can be inferred from search. (city population, voting record...)
Would you also discount these use cases as productivity ones?
Wow! I try not to read long posts like this because I don’t prefer cluttering my inbox or my 72 yo brain! But there’s so much here and since I love AI, it hits many nails on their heads. Heck, I could probably build something with all of those nails. Hmmm - let’s as GPT…. Oops! Back to your post.
This sums it all up perfectly.
• Use AI to go deeper into fewer things.
• Use AI to attempt the impossible.
• To create the previously unimaginable.
• Just don’t expect to save time doing it.
Thank you!! I’ll hopefully come back for more follow up discussion later!
Up front work pays off. Making sure everyone - humans and AI - are clear about the task and desired outcome before starting to generate anything is super helpful.
Excellent. There are however a few lower level tasks where I think I do get some productivity, but maybe i'm too lazy to spot hallucinations ;-). Example:
- Document format conversion: take this PDF full of data and make it an excel
- Review these 4-5 large documents and spot inconsistencies. (and I know the AI may miss a few but I don't have time to read all the docs)
- Tasks that are very language related like: translation, summary, transcript
- Search and search related task: read my customer database and enrich the location with a category that can be inferred from search. (city population, voting record...)
Would you also discount these use cases as productivity ones?
Thanks
Excellent! Very practical and well thought articles without any fuss!
Wow! I try not to read long posts like this because I don’t prefer cluttering my inbox or my 72 yo brain! But there’s so much here and since I love AI, it hits many nails on their heads. Heck, I could probably build something with all of those nails. Hmmm - let’s as GPT…. Oops! Back to your post.
This sums it all up perfectly.
• Use AI to go deeper into fewer things.
• Use AI to attempt the impossible.
• To create the previously unimaginable.
• Just don’t expect to save time doing it.
Thank you!! I’ll hopefully come back for more follow up discussion later!
Excellent take!!
Up front work pays off. Making sure everyone - humans and AI - are clear about the task and desired outcome before starting to generate anything is super helpful.
Love the parallel with the film to digital photography transition ! Congrats
Reference section got obliterated
Here they are
[1] Burkeman, O. (2021). Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals_
[2] Microsoft. (2024). Work Trend Index Annual Report: AI at Work Is Here.
[3] https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2025/july/ai-chatbots-remain-confident-even-when-theyre-wrong
[4] Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity. https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/
[5] Cupareanu, Daria. The Expert's Paradox: Why AI Is Actually Making Your Job Harder https://aiblewmymind.substack.com/p/the-experts-paradox-why-ai-is-actually