I think we have completely messed it up when it comes to AI.
Not because AI is bad.
Not because it should be avoided.
And not because using it in your business automatically makes your work lazy, disconnected or less valuable.
But because so many people are using it in the most backwards way possible.
Right now, I see two extremes everywhere.
On one side, people are going fully all in. They are outsourcing their thinking, their creativity, their writing, their offers, their voice, their problem solving and even their community connection to AI. Their content sounds polished but hollow. Their messaging is faster, but flatter. Their work is more efficient, but far less memorable.
On the other side, people are proudly staying completely offline, refusing to engage with AI at all, almost as if ignoring it will somehow protect them from how fast the online business world is changing.
I do not think either of those extremes is the answer.
Because AI cannot be ignored in 2026, especially if you are a coach, creator or service provider. It is already changing the way people buy, the way people search for answers, the way people expect support, and the way content is created and consumed.
The question is not whether AI is affecting your business.
It is.
The real question is whether you are using it in a way that strengthens what makes your business powerful, or whether you are slowly letting it strip that away.
That is the part I cannot stop thinking about.
The online business industry is changing rapidly. Information products are not being valued in the same way they were even a few years ago. Buyers are comparing your paid offers to how quickly they can get a response from ChatGPT or Claude. The sales conversation is shifting too. It is no longer just, can I afford this. It is also, is this better, faster, more enjoyable, more nuanced, more personal, or more effective than what AI can give me in five seconds.
And I do not think enough people are really grappling with what that means.
What does it mean for buyer behaviour when people can get instant answers anytime they want?
What does it mean for content when so much of it is starting to sound the same?
What does it mean for communities and client relationships when people are increasingly relying on AI for support, brainstorming and strategy before they ever come to another human?
These are not small questions.
But instead of slowing down and actually thinking about them, most people seem to be doing the opposite. They are using AI to outsource the very things that make their work valuable in the first place.
Their thinking.
Their creativity.
Their content.
Their problem solving.
Their community building.
And that is where I think we have got it badly wrong.
Because AI should not be replacing the parts of your business that make you you.
It should be supporting you.
It should be saving you time on the things that drain you.
It should be helping you move faster when speed actually matters.
It should be helping you organise, test, refine and execute.
It should be amplifying your strengths, not flattening them.
It should be helping you create more impact, more efficiency and more output without disconnecting from your own voice, your own values and your own people.
That is a completely different use of the tool.
I do not want a business where AI speaks for me.
I want a business where AI helps me build faster, think bigger and execute better, while I stay fully connected to the parts of my work that need to come from me.
That is the middle I am interested in.
Not fully outsourced.
Not fully resistant.
But deeply intentional.
I want to know what happens when we use AI to propel us without losing ourselves.
What happens when we stop asking it to replace our creativity and start asking it to strengthen our capacity?
What happens when we use it to free up more time for real connection, deeper thinking, stronger community and more meaningful work?
What happens when we stop trying to make our content faster at the expense of making it better?
Because I think that is the backwards part.
What we put out into the world should stand out, not be slopped out.
And yet so much AI use in online business right now seems built around speed for the sake of speed. More posts. More emails. More captions. More outputs. But not necessarily more thought, more clarity or more resonance.
That is not the future I want to build toward.
I want to use AI in ways that help me:
Connect with people more deeply
Save time where time is being wasted
Be more efficient behind the scenes
Increase productivity without increasing disconnection
Make more money and create more impact without flattening my work into something generic
That feels far more useful, and far more honest, than either worshipping AI or rejecting it completely.
So that is the journey I am on right now.I am documenting what I am building, what I am testing, what I am learning and what I am absolutely not outsourcing as I figure this out in real time inside my newsletter From Dial Up to Dialled In.
