Through my years in the tech industry, there have been few innovations that have generated as much excitement – and anxiety – as generative AI (GenAI). While AI has changed how I work and create for the better, I will admit that it also came with a period of fear and pushback. I have seen the way new technologies come and go and are quickly forgotten. And, the headlines painting GenAI as a “job-stealing superpower poised to replace us all” did not make me feel any better.
The turning point for me came on a random weekday when I turned to my now good pal, ChatGPT, to help me write a brief for a blog. It took some back-and-forth, but the final result turned out to be something I was really proud of. Since then, the integration of GenAI into my workflows has been slow, but intentional.
While I do still believe there are legitimate concerns to have about AI, and not all anxiety is unfounded, some of it is based on fear-mongering. I don’t necessarily believe that we should lean into the dystopian “AI takeover” tropes. While captivating, these arguments often overlook the ways that GenAI can help us to be more imaginative, free us up to do more, and spark creative problem-solving.
I don’t plan to convince you to use AI (not today at least), but I do hope that you leave today with some insight on the possibilities of AI.
Addressing your concerns: When is fear warranted?
I haven’t been beating around the bush yet and I won’t start now. There’s no denying that GenAI has the potential to reshape certain jobs and industries. The World Economic Forum (WEF) in their “The Future of Jobs Report 2020,” identifies administrative, clerical, and even content-related roles at higher risk due to their structured and repetitive nature.
AI excels in pattern recognition, data processing, and performing repetitive tasks, which means that roles where predictability is high, creative input is low, and that have clear instructions can be programmed into an AI system and automated.
While there’s a plethora of other resources on the “negative” impact of AI on the workforce – I want to challenge us to look a bit beyond. What happens when aspects of our jobs are automated or AI-supported? What does that allow us to do more of? What are the limits of AI?
The reality: AI has nothing on you
Luckily for us, AI struggles to have an intuitive understanding of nuance. The magic of AI lies in what we do with the information it provides us and AI can’t replicate that. Our superpower lies in our ability to be creative, our ability to feel, and our very unique human experience.
For example, the brief for this article you are reading was written with help from ChatGPT, and the research to put this together was gathered from Perplexity (verified by me afterward, of course). While these tools were quick to pull facts and suggest ideas, they lack the human experience and emotional intelligence to tell a story about why AI may be scary for folks like you and me—regardless of how much prompting.
As a content creator, I refuse to see GenAI as a replacement for what I do. Rather, I know that my human experience, when paired with AI’s limitless knowledge, can propel my skills to new heights.
How folks are using GenAI in their everyday
The reality (I guess, really, in my opinion) is that GenAI works best when used to complement our expertise. Yeah, it can crunch numbers and even make solid recommendations, but it can’t adapt, empathize, or make strategic decisions when the stakes are high like we can. In these roles, AI may help carry the load, but it’s not steering the ship.
Here’s how the Beefree team is using AI:
Marketing Program Manager
"Sometimes I default to being too straight and to the point when giving feedback on a project, or similar things, so I ask AI for help revising my feedback to be more clear and less “blunt.”
Afterwards, I ask it to explain the types of changes it has made so I can learn and internalize the lessons moving forward to improve on delivering feedback.
AI helps me to be more intentional and empathetic in my communication. I don’t just use it to revise, but also to help teach and aid me in growing as a professional."
- Samantha Hoffmann, Marketing Program Manager
CEO
"What I use the most these days is AI-assisted search. I very rarely use Google search anymore. My go-to is Perplexity Pro, which I use as an assistant when I need to research topics, figure out best practices to follow in certain situations, and overall try to become better at my job."
- Masssimo Arrigoni, CEO
Corporate Communication Specialist
"I frequently use AI to check my English. For example, I write copy and ask it to verify the accuracy. It often suggests changes, and after some back-and-forth, I work toward creating a polished and more captivating version."
- Elisa Battigelli, Corporate Communication Specialist
Head of Product
"One way I use AI is for brainstorming. I provide as much context as possible—notes, references, and ideas—to help build a detailed outline for a topic. From there, I request multiple iterations, sometimes adding additional context, asking the AI to be wild and creative with it, or challenging the initial output.
This approach doesn’t give me a finished text I can use directly, but it generates a rich set of ideas and points that I can further research."
- Guille Padilla, Head of Product
Backend Engineering Associate Manager
"I use AI for my searches and questions on almost every topic, including the more technical around software development."
- Roberto Pomoni, Backend Engineering Associate Manager
Senior Full Stack Developer
"Aside from brainstorming and summarizing long reads, I use AI on a more technical side to write boilerplate/repetitive code (that always needs to be checked) and manage the time allotment for my working tasks through MotionAi."
- Lica Filice, Senior Full Stack Developer
Head of People & Culture
"I use AI to help me transform my messy notes more comprehensively to make them easy to share. It also helps me summarize long readings, optimize written communication, get drafts for policy/docs, and get benchmarks and comparisons."
- Enrica Lipari, Head of People & Culture
What now? Staying relevant and evolving with GenAI
As I said earlier, I’m not here to convince you that AI is right for you, but I will say AI isn’t going anywhere. Instead, it will continue to expand into more areas of work and industries, and its capabilities will only become stronger with time.
My plan is to lean into this. Dedicate myself to learning and evolving with it. And double down on my expertise. AI makes my job much easier by doing things like helping me write briefs and retrieve data. By letting AI take on my repetitive taks, I gain something even more valuable: time.
For myself and so many others, this extra time allows us to step away from mundane everyday tasks and spend more time thinking strategically and creatively about the impactful decisions that make a real difference in our work.
Leaning into AI wasn’t a decision made to stay “relevant” or “head of the curve.” It was about amplifying what makes me and my contributions invaluable. So I ask you: What do you want to do more of? What can you let go of to do this?
.png)
