With Me, Not For Me - AI in Knowledge Work
I don’t want technology to do my job for me. I want it to do it with me. This isn’t resistance to AI, it’s recognizing the value we each bring to the table.
My role isn’t about producing answers. It’s about framing the problem, noticing the outliers, and providing guidance where precedent is thin. The kind of discovery work I do requires customer observation, testing hypotheses, making sense of ambiguity, and sitting with uncertainty. Those “we haven’t seen this before” moments are where I do my work.
AI can accelerate that process. It can challenge my assumptions, surface blind spots, increase precision, clarify language, and expand the set of possibilities. AI can find me business models, thought leaders, and best practices. AI handles the scalable patterns. AI is better at me when processing information, summarizing it, and working on the “common” case. It knows more about precedent than I do.
But I still need to own the framing, and context is the difference.
And context isn’t just data. It’s institutional memory, shifting incentives, the relationships in the room, timing, risk tolerance, second-order effects. My context shifts constantly when you’re challenging the norms. That’s why AI isn’t my competitor, it’s my collaborator.
“Do it with me, not for me” is about authorship and accountability. AI sharpens my thinking, it doesn’t replace my accountability.