With the introduction of AI, our working environment has changed forever. Just as we no longer light fires with stones, now that we have AI, we can’t expect to do things the way we used to.
But when it comes to AI, things look different. Instead of AI producing the same result for everyone, it seems to deliver different results for different people—even within the same company, doing the same job.
If you’re exploring how to create a personal AI strategy, you’ve already noticed this and might be wondering why that is. Well, who you are—your actions, behaviors, and mindset—has a significant impact on what you can co-create with AI.
Having a personal AI strategy is about taking control of your professional life. It’s about ensuring that vendor training, general prompts, and YouTube videos drive the specific results you need to succeed and achieve your career goals.
What Do We Need to Know?
Just like building an AI strategy to fit a business’s values and work environment, the key to creating a personal AI strategy starts with knowing ourselves.
A personal AI strategy isn’t really about the tool itself; it’s all about you. Once you’ve nailed down your plan, you can apply it across any AI tool you use.
To get there, you need to be brutally honest about what makes you tick—how you see the world, how you view AI, and how your biases shape those views.
It’s also crucial to understand your levels of creativity, open-mindedness, and how much you truly embrace critical thinking.
Where to Begin: Know Yourself – Self-Assessment
Please remember there are no right or wrong answers here. Your answers may even change over time as your personal AI strategy evolves and your level of confidence in yourself and in AI grows as you start producing different results from your AI partnership.
The goal of this self-assessment is to provide you with the insights you need to be able to design a personal AI strategy that supports you in achieving your goals now and in to the future.
You need to understand the foundation of your relationship with AI—how you view it and what it means to you. This perspective shapes your relationship with AI and can set limits on what you you can achieve, often without you even realizing it.
So let’s uncover what you might be hiding from yourself by answering the questions below:
What do you think AI is?
- A system
- Augmenting your capabilities
- A new partner
How do you express your creative side within the work environment?
- Ideas just come to me out of nowhere
- I need to brainstorm for new ideas, and once one comes up, I’m good at developing it
- I’m good at co-creator all the way
Do you believe AI is here to replace you? (Rate from 1 to 5)
How often do you ask yourself “why not” in the context of work?
- I don’t do that in the context of work
- Not often
- All the time
Data Policy: On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you in the level of data integrity supporting your AI tool? (This applies only if you are using a company tool.)
How to create your personal AI strategy
Set Your Goals: Start by identifying your objectives
What do you want to achieve by working with AI?
Consider the pressing differences you’ve noticed when using AI compared to your colleagues using the same tool—whether it’s the time it takes to produce the same output, the quality of results, or any other factor. Choose the area that you believe should be your top priority and can have the most significant impact on your success rate and the quality of your day-to-day work.
KPI Metrics: Define a quantifiable metric to measure progress and success.
Setting bigger goals isn’t always the best approach; instead, plan measurable, achievable steps. These metrics will serve as your navigation system, helping you ensure you’re on the right path and showing tangible results and progress on your journey of improvement.
Define Your Workflow: The practical part of designing your personal AI strategy
With the goal you’ve selected, pick a core workflow process that underpins your work to achieve this goal.
Take a moment to remember how you completed this task before AI was introduced into your working environment. If you don’t recall, consider how you would do it alone, without AI in the picture. Can you envision yourself doing it solo? Write down all the steps you would take to achieve the desired outcome.
Step 1: Understanding Your Relationship with AI
Your answer to how you perceive AI will guide how you design your workflow with AI:
- System: If you see AI as a system, ensure you include regular check-ins in your workflow. This mindset might limit your ability to see the potential of AI. By incorporating frequent checkpoints, you’ll begin to see more opportunities for collaboration, as this is crucial for you to engage more deeply with AI.
- Augmenting Your Capabilities: If you view AI as augmenting your abilities, identify areas in your workflow where AI can enhance your strengths, such as data analysis. Mark these points as key collaboration moments between you and AI.
- A New Partner: If you see AI as a new partner, identify all the steps where you can use AI as a collaborative partner. Whether you’re leading or following, these points will enhance your day-to-day work, fostering a sense of teamwork. This collaboration will boost your ability to produce better results and allow you to challenge and engage with AI more effectively by marking more collaboration points on your workflow.
Step 2: Creativity
Mark all the steps that require creative input based on your personal approach to creativity.
- If you answered 1: If your strength lies in generating new ideas, handle the creative aspects yourself, and clearly mark those steps in your workflow.
- If you answered 2: If you thrive on collaboration when creating new ideas, select points in your workflow for creative collaboration with AI. It doesn’t have to be a long brainstorming session—just a quick conversation. AI is a thinking mind, and you can leverage that to better support your day-to-day tasks.
- If you answered 3: If creativity isn’t your strength, let AI lead in areas where you need ideas. Ensure you get more than one option, so you have choices that make you feel more comfortable and better represent your vision.
Step 3: Addressing level of fear and misconceptions
Your belief about whether AI might replace you significantly impacts your engagement.
Remember—AI is a co-creation technology; it can’t do it by itself, but we’ll work with your current beliefs.
- 1-3: If your willingness to engage with AI is low, recognize that this is your biggest barrier to success. Build your confidence by creating multiple checkpoints in your workflow and follow through with AI, even if it initially takes longer. Don’t abandon AI midway through the process; make sure you see it through.
- 4: If you’re neutral, maintain consistency by following your AI-driven workflow closely. You may be tempted to revert to old habits, but sticking with AI will yield better results.
- 5: If you’re fully on board with AI, great! But make sure this belief is genuine and not just for appearances. Authentic engagement will help you make the most of your AI partnership.
Step 4: Why Not? – Level of open-mindess
This step is all about understanding your biases and your willingness to challenge AI and be challenged by it.
At the core, it’s about identifying those limiting beliefs that fall under what we often call confirmation bias.
When working with AI, your ability to question its outputs—and let it question you—directly impacts the quality of what you produce. If you’re not challenging its suggestions or allowing AI to push back, you’re missing out on the potential of what could be achieved. Your level of challenging, and openness to being challenged, is directly tied to the quality of your work with AI. The better you get at this, the higher the quality of your AI-driven work will be.
- If your answer was “I don’t do that in the context of work” or “Not often”: Inject a “Why not?” moment into your workflow every time AI or you take the lead. This habit will push boundaries and reveal new possibilities, leading to immediate improvements in your collaboration with AI.
- If your answer was “All the time”: Keep pushing yourself further by exploring new ways to challenge AI. Look for methods to provoke better feedback by refining your language, asking more insightful questions, experimenting with new data inputs, and conducting deep-dive sessions with AI. This is where you’ll find the greatest potential for improving quality and speeding up your work with AI.
Step 5: Data Policy –
Data is the foundation of every AI project and is often the biggest challenge for achieving success.
- If your answer was between 1-3: Your confidence in the level of data supportting your AI uses by your company is low. I understand, and that’s okay. What you need to do is identify where AI tasks rely on company data in your workflow and set a task for yourself to review the output. This will build your confidence and reduce the time spent on corrections later, making the process smoother.
- If you answered 4: You’re in the middle ground. For tasks you’re doing for the first time using this workflow, I’d recommend adding more check-in points. For familiar tasks, focus on major points and make quick reviews as needed.
- If you answered 5: This step isn’t as relevant for you, but always stay vigilant and periodically reassess your workflow to ensure data integrity.
Learning and Adaptation:
Run your new process for a week, then review and adapt based on what you’ve learned. This ensures smooth implementation and continuous improvement.
Building Trust:
Building trust with your AI tool is an ongoing process that benefits from regular feedback sessions. Start by conducting these sessions after each completion of your selected workflow. Once you’ve established a routine, you can reduce the frequency to once a week.
During these sessions, take time to review how the process went and pinpoint areas that could be improved. If you’re using AI tools like ChatGPT, engage with them as you would with a colleague by asking questions such as, “What do you think we can improve on in this task?” AI can offer insights into how your collaboration can be enhanced.
As you consistently apply the feedback from these sessions, you’ll begin to see a steady improvement in the quality of your outputs and a shift in how you view your AI tool. This evolving trust will help you refine your workflow and align it more closely with your goals. The key is to stay open to making adjustments as you progress, allowing your partnership with AI to grow stronger and more effective.
Continuous Improvement:
As you achieve your KPIs, go back to the top and start again by selecting a new goal move.
Remember, AI is evolving, and your personal AI strategy should evolve with it.
Conclusion:
Creating a personal AI strategy is about understanding yourself—your strengths, your mindset, and how you engage with AI.
It’s not just about the tool itself, but how you use it to complement your skills and goals.
My Thoughts:
AI is not just another technology—it’s a new entity. We often overlook that, for the first time in history, technology has stepped into the realm of human thought. While AI currently mimics our logical minds, its superpower lies in its ability to analyze vast amounts of data, something beyond human capability.
When we think of AI as a thinking mind, we must remember that communication is the bridge between thought and reality. Just as with human interaction, the effectiveness of communication with AI depends on who we are—our worldview, our open-mindedness, and our biases. Working with AI is a form of collaboration with a thinking partner. Even though it may not seem obvious, AI is a reflection of your work and should support your career and personal goals. To make the most of this partnership, you need to invest in it and ensure it aligns with your professional growth.
A personal AI strategy is key to taking control of your career in the age of AI. It’s not just about using AI; it’s about consciously shaping how AI fits into your professional life. I understand this might not be the typical way of thinking about AI, but I’m here to help. If you need guidance on this journey, feel free to reach out—I’d be happy to assist.
