Generic AI Outreach Patterns to Avoid

Everyone says AI is supposed to simplify our lives. My to-do list disagrees. Before AI, I had a list of 20 things to do and I'd knock out the ones I actually could. The rest just sat there. Now: → I build a complete financial model for my business in 10 hours without needing an analyst → I draft a five-email outreach campaign in an afternoon → I'm planning a hands-on Pigment workshop and realized I can generate realistic sample data myself (something that used to take me 80 hours to do manually) So I do all of it. And then I add 10 more things to the list. There’s something really empowering about all this productivity. But it’s also somewhat exhausting to have the ceiling of what I can do on my own be so high. I came across an HBR piece recently about AI and cognitive load that articulates this well. The argument isn't about AI being bad or overwhelming. Just that the mental burden shifts, and if you're not paying attention, it quietly gets heavier. It's worth a read if you're feeling this. Link in the comments

The productivity gap between AI users and non-users isn't growing linearly. It's compounding. Here's why: Every day you use AI, your systems get more refined. Your agent learns more about you. Your outputs improve. Every day you don't, you're working the same way you were a year ago. Month one: the AI user is maybe 20% faster. Month six: they're doing the same work in half the time. Month twelve: they're doing work you can't match at any speed. I've been at this for 6 months. I'm not 20% faster than I was. I'm doing things I genuinely couldn't do before. More outreach. Better prep. Faster turnaround. The gap isn't about intelligence. It's about compounding daily habits. AI users are on a compound curve. Everyone else is on a flat line. Where are you on that graph?

🤖 vs. 🧑🤝🧑: Who's Better? Ever wondered if AI could outsmart humans? Well, let’s take a light-hearted look! 1. **Memory**: AI can remember every single detail without breaking a sweat. Meanwhile, I can’t even remember where I left my keys! 2. **Speed**: AI can analyze data in seconds, while I’m still trying to figure out how to open a PDF. 3. **Creativity**: Sure, AI can generate art, but can it make a sandwich? I think not! 4. **Social Skills**: AI might ace a trivia quiz, but it can’t tell a dad joke like a human can! So, who wins? Maybe it’s a tie! Let’s celebrate our quirks and the quirks of AI!

AI will do most of what you do. Faster. Cheaper. Without ego. And honestly? Good. Because what's left after that is the only stuff that ever actually mattered. A real point of view. Actual conviction. The ability to walk into a room and make people feel something. To make a call that the data doesn't support and be right about it because you've lived enough to know. Most people are terrified of this moment. Understandably. Because for a long time, output was identity. You were what you produced. And now a model can produce it in seconds. So who are you without the output? That's the question AI is actually forcing. And it's the most human question there is. The people who figure that out,.. who stop hiding behind process and tools and templates and start leading with genuine perspective, they're not going to be replaced. They're going to be the only ones left worth listening to.

Totally resonate with this sentiment. Building and honing your judgement (that elite, subtle soft skill of knowing how things work and knowing the nuances) which can only be learned from lived experiences... That, will govern how you add value or move people. That, would be truly human and irreplaceable. Once you emrbrace this, you feel so liberated from this 'AI will replace humans' limbo we are going through right now. You see beyond it.

I think i have “AI paralysis” I’ve been strongly exploring automations and AI for the last 2 weeks. And ofcourse, social media algorithm has been pushing endless content to me. And here i see 2 camps emerging 1/ Anti-AI camp: mostly management-side employees, who are busy finding flaws in AI (its true, there is a laundry list). Constant AI write off echo chamber. 2/ Pro-AI camp: Mostly solopreneurs, AI bro-types trying to cut overhead. Every small tool launch kills some industry. They think these are the last few years humans have left. Doomsday-ish types. I think both are wrong, AI and automations have great potential, but it isn’t some know all as they want you to think. It breaks and it can get expensive too. I think the real way to make AI work, is to map out what you want done and piece by piece see what works, while debugging so it doesn’t break. Coz god it breaks so much that its not even funny.

AI is powerful, but it’s not just plug-and-play. If you're trying to integrate AI into your workflows, the smartest approach you can have is to take it a bit slow and go STEP by STEP. - Start small. - Test thoroughly. - Debug when things break (because they will). Treat it almost like a product rollout: Alpha -> Beta -> Iteration -> Scale. One of the biggest mistakes you can make while adopting AI in your org/workflow is rushing to deploy it at full scale without proper testing. More often than not, it creates more chaos than efficiency. And worse, it burns valuable resources along the way: time, money, and team energy.

It's a cliche - "At GDC everyone was talking about AI" - you couldn't get a coffee without overhearing an AI conversation. But they aren't the same conversations. There's a massive gap in people's experiences. You get people's proclamations about AI based on a mental model from six months ago. The folks who skimmed a few Linkedin posts. The people dipping their toe in the icy AI waters. And the people aggressively trying to solve their real world problems. These gaps in experience are becoming canyons - to the point where we're living in parallel realties. What I can say, my workflow for making a game is vastly different than it was six months ago and the tasks you do as "your work" are going to change.

I have been - rightfully - accused of being an #AI naysayer, but that's largely because of the lunatics who share awful AI images and video with messaging like "we're cooked" rather than focusing on areas where AI actually makes us mere mortals better. So, in light of that I have a little experience share that I'm shocked more people don't take advantage of as it relates to AI... If you're in business development of any kind, or just someone who enjoys taking meetings, I cannot say enough good things about utilizing tools like Kolbe, Culture Index, Predictive Index, etc. *prior* to meeting with anyone. Run your pattern and the other person's pattern through Claude - or your preferred AI - and ask for suggestions, potential pitfalls, messaging / scripting edits based on patterns, etc. It always amazes me that the people who get value out of these tools for hiring often completely ignore it for revenue generating activities. TL;DR - If you're talking to someone who self identifies as not caring about the details and constantly in "go mode" in the same way you're talking to someone who wants to take their time going through all the facts, and analyzing options...you're doing yourself, and your business, a major disservice. That said, I'm not an AI, I'm just Jon (not Joe). So, take it with a grain of salt...

Prompting Isn’t Magic It’s a Skill You Can Master AI delivers when you get specific. 5 Mistakes to Avoid : 1️⃣Vague wording: Fix ambiguity by adding specifics like topic, audience, length, etc. 2️⃣Overloading tasks: Limit prompts to one clear task at a time 3️⃣No role/context: Start with "Act as [expert]" and relevant background to guide the AI's perspective. 4️⃣Skipping format: Always specify output structure, like "in 3 bullets" or "as a table," for organized results. 5️⃣No testing: Iterate prompts by testing, reviewing output, and refining based on feedback. Master these, and AI becomes your superpower. What’s your biggest prompt struggle? Drop it below! 👇