Let me be honest. AI is one of the most powerful tools to come along in my career. It’s also one of the most dangerous — not because of what it can do, but because of what it’s doing to us.
I see both sides of this every day. At ParkWeb, we use AI to write code faster, automate tasks in our CRM, and build tools that save us real time. I’m not anti-AI. I’m pro-thinking. And that’s where my concern starts.
We’re outsourcing our brains.
I work in a technical role. I talk to people in technical roles. And I’m watching something happen that bothers me more every month: people are stopping thinking for themselves.
I can tell when someone pastes an entire email thread into ChatGPT or Claude and sends back whatever it spits out. You can feel it. The response is hollow. Robotic. There’s no thought behind it — just output.
I get it. It’s easier. But easier isn’t better. And if we keep leaning on AI to do our thinking, we’re going to lose the ability to think at all. If you’ve ever seen the movie Idiocracy, you know exactly where that road leads.
I’m not calling anyone an idiot. I’m saying we’re slowly giving away the one thing that makes us valuable: the ability to reason, evaluate, and respond with our own judgment.
It’s also genuinely great.
I don’t want to sound like I’m standing on a soapbox yelling at the future. AI has made my business better. That’s the truth.
We use it to analyze repetitive tasks in our CRM and find what can be automated. We use it to tag and route tasks to the right team members. We use it to write code faster — what used to take us hours can be drafted in seconds. The same instinct that pushed me to stack value into every offer at ParkWeb is what drives how I use AI: make the work better, not easier to ignore.
But here’s the key: we don’t use it to replace ourselves. We use it to make ourselves more efficient. There’s a real difference.
The pioneers are worried too.
I’ve spent a lot of time studying AI — not just using it, but following the people who built it. The creators. The researchers. The pioneers. And many of them are raising the same concerns I’m raising here.
That matters. When the people who built the thing are telling you to be careful with it, you should listen.
If you’re going to use it, use it right.
Here’s my advice. Find the tasks in your business that are repetitive, time-consuming, and draining. The stuff you hate doing. The stuff that eats your day without moving the needle. Start there.
Pair AI with automation tools like Zapier. Let it handle the grunt work. Let it draft. Let it sort. Let it suggest. But don’t let it decide for you. And don’t let it speak for you.
I’ve tested nearly every major AI platform — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, and even routing between models through OpenRouter. If I had to pick one, Claude handles most tasks the best across the board. For writing specifically, ChatGPT does well too.
But none of them are perfect. I’ve seen AI produce wrong answers, broken code, and designs with no eye for detail. It happens constantly. AI is not infallible — it just sounds like it is.
Where I land.
From a personal standpoint, I worry. From a business standpoint, I worry. But I’m also excited. It’s a love-hate relationship, and I think anyone being honest with themselves feels the same tension. I wrote about that same tension — the weight that comes with building something real — in Finding Peace in the Storm. The pressure to keep up, to stay relevant, to carry it all. AI adds a new layer to that.
AI should assist what we do. It should not replace how we think.
So use it. But review everything it gives you. It is 100% susceptible to error. Put guardrails in place. Stay sharp. And never stop thinking for yourself — because the moment you do, the tool starts using you.
The real measure of progress isn’t how much AI can do for you. It’s whether you’re still growing without it.