Confessions of an AI Skeptic
I used to think AI was going to dumb us down.
Honestly, I worried it would make the next generation passive. I worried that my children would stop thinking critically and become reliant on instant answers, without questioning their validity. Everywhere I looked, people were using it to shortcut work, generate content without context, and spit out half-baked responses that somehow passed for communication. It felt like a fast track to mediocrity, and I wasn’t alone in my concerns.
A recent YouGov survey found that 44% of Americans are skeptical about AI, up from 36% just months earlier. More than half say they don’t trust AI to make fair or unbiased decisions, and nearly two-thirds are uneasy about its role in ethical decision-making. The message is clear: people are paying attention, and they’re not blindly buying into the hype.
Skepticism isn’t the problem - blind faith is.
Some people worry about bias. Others fear job loss. Many are focused on long-term societal risks. Plenty of us just want to know: can this actually help me, or are we all about to start sounding the same? The number of times I have read “in the ever-evolving world of real estate” in the last two years makes my head spin.
Those concerns are real. I wasn’t sure I could trust it. I didn’t want to lower my standards or produce work that felt generic. I didn’t want to stop thinking. I believe in growth. In leveling up. If I’m not growing, I’m missing the chance to get better. I started asking a different question…not “is AI good or bad?” but “how can I use this in a way that still feels like me?”
There wasn’t a dramatic shift. Just a quiet acknowledgment: AI isn’t going away. Ignoring it wasn’t going to make it disappear, so I decided to explore how it could support me. I started small, using AI to help with content writing. Not to replace my voice, but to give me a faster starting point. It helped me get past blank-page paralysis, move quicker on deliverables, and focus more on refining than starting from scratch.
Now it’s a daily part of how I work. I use it to:
Break down complex documents
Brainstorm and organize ideas
Prep for meetings
Draft responses
Summarize wordy thoughts into clarity
I don’t expect it to be perfect. It still needs fine-tuning. You don’t need specific prompts. Just treat it like a conversation. Guide it. Redirect it. I told ChatGPT I never want to see the word “trailblazer” in my content again, and now I don’t. I’ve figured out how to make AI work for me, not against me. It reminds me a lot of parenting. I set the tone, teach it how I think, and step in when it veers off track.
If you’re skeptical, I get it. I was you. I still question the tools I use today. There’s no need to go all in. You don’t have to use every new AI feature that launches. Start where you are and try something that helps you work smarter or breathe easier. Always edit. Always think critically. Lead with your values.
Skepticism isn’t a barrier. It’s the reason you’ll use AI better than most.