Me? Trust AI? Not a chance, but I am using it. Meet my new intern, Alan!

I'll be honest: when everyone started raving about AI, I rolled my eyes so hard I pulled something. The hype was everywhere. AI this, AI that. "It'll make you faster!" "It'll write your copy!" "It'll make your coffee!" (Okay, not that last one. Yet.)

Meanwhile, I'm over here thinking....excuse me! Some of us have spent years building our craft. We've honed our instincts through bad PowerPoint presentations and awkward user interviews. We've cried over pixels. We've screamed over spacing. We've earned our anxiety.

Then comes this shiny new toy, trained on our collective sweat and tears, offering answers in 1.8 seconds as if it's the new office genius. I was unimpressed. Offended, even.

Ok, let's face it: AI doesn't know that "Make it pop" is a threat. It doesn't understand why Helvetica is a safe space. It doesn't know that when someone says, "Let's take this offline," they mean, "I hate this idea, but I'm being polite."

But despite all that, I came to a harsh truth: unless I plan to retire in six months and live off vibes and iced coffee… I can't avoid it. So I made a decision:

I'm not letting AI do my job.

But I am letting it help me do it better.

Now I treat it like a very eager intern. I call him Intern Alan, who is fast, helpful, and never takes lunch breaks.

MEET ALAN!

Alan has absolutely no idea what sarcasm is. Sometimes it's brilliant. Sometimes, he gives me ideas that make me question everything. Sometimes, he confidently spits out something that sounds like a caffeinated alien wrote it.

And honestly? I'm okay with that.

Alan doesn't replace human judgment. He doesn't know when the room goes quiet after a risky idea. He doesn't feel the awkward pause before someone says, "Well, that's… interesting." He has no clue how to write a message that's both "kind" and "please fix this immediately."

Let's be real. Alan still CAN'T:

• Read the room

• Sense when someone has a rough day

• Know that "Looks good" really means "This is a mess and we both know it."

• Understand inside jokes or passive-aggressive emojis

• Or write copy that doesn't sound like a robot trying to get promoted

But Alan can help me organize my thoughts, suggest a new angle, and provide a rough draft when my brain is somewhere between "deadline mode" and "existential crisis."

So, no, I don't trust him blindly. But I'm not too proud to use him either.

Skeptical? Totally.

Still, showing up with an open mind? Also yes.

Because tools don't make us irrelevant.

They just make us faster, if we know how to use them.

And if not? Well… maybe then I'll retire.

In the end, Alan is a tool. And tools are only as powerful as the people using them. So, if you're skeptical like I was, that's okay. You're not behind. You're being thoughtful. Just don't sit it out completely. You might find that when you use AI on your terms, it's not so bad after all.