TL;DR? We don’t share everything with AI\u2014\u200aand probably never will. In that gap is the boundary you get to set between your service\u2019s value proposition and what folks can reasonably do with AI (instead of you).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond just \u201cHow can I take advantage of AI for myself?\u201d, I keep seeing the same two questions pop up:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some circles, it\u2019s followed by a third along the lines of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Depending on the moment \u2026 These questions could be reflecting any mix of crisis<\/strong> (\u201cAm I about to be made irrelevant?\u201d) and pragmatism<\/strong> (\u201cThe landscape has changed. What should I do about it?\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here\u2019s the truth that validates both:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With good instincts, a solid knowledge base, a framework for making judgement calls, and a little experience, AI can probably get you about 70% of the way to where you want to go<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Yes, that\u2019s a made-up number, but \u2026. It\u2019s there to help make the point that that\u2019s probably sufficient for most things<\/strong>. Perfectionism and decision paralysis aside, most of us will\u200a\u2014\u200ajustifiably\u200a\u2014\u200astop right there.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it\u2019s not sufficient \u2026 It\u2019s not a question of a better prompt or an updated model. It\u2019s about what\u2019s missing from the data used to train the models<\/strong>\u200a\u2014\u200aand finding the boundary<\/strong> for when that matters and when it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tying back to that 70% I mentioned earlier, I\u2019ve found that AI can help me with a lot of real work in my business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a personal MO, I almost never use AI to generate ideas (although a conversation might spark one); I find it easy to get derailed by AI\u2019s confident pushiness while I\u2019m still germinating. So I typically pull together a working draft\u200a\u2014\u200aor, at the very least, a robust outline \u2013and then run it by the AI. That helps to preserve my POV and my own judgement calls, which I think are essential to connecting with my audience and staying true to my vision and brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These will be prompts along the lines of: \u201cResearch reddit and similar forums and tell me what kinds of questions folks are asking about dealing with whitespace in their Excel data\u201d or \u201cAct like a funnel strategist. What kinds of lead magnets or audience builders or other marketing mechanisms would you recommend for [service URL]? Make people want the paid version. Use data from places like Google Trends, X, Reddit, and anywhere else you find useful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can help me understand how my efforts fit into the larger landscape. Sometimes this helps me validate or refine something like a video script before I start scripting. Sometimes this helps me find new ways to market a service. And sometimes it helps me assess whether what I\u2019m thinking about is more of a blue ocean or a dry well based on factors like how others are productizing similar services or finding workarounds that mean that no one is really paying for this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different models are trained in different ways. Additionally, once you\u2019ve been in a single chat long enough, you and the AI have created an echo chamber. That\u2019s why I don\u2019t rely on just one AI when what I\u2019m working on really matters. I\u2019ll take the idea that I\u2019m in love with, that seems to hold together really well, and pop it into another AI to see what I get back on a cold read. (Data policies matter here\u200a\u2014\u200aso this isn\u2019t always an option.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, when it really, really matters, I\u2019ll still run it by a human at some point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In each of the cases listed above, AI is latching on to what\u2019s popular in a \u201cwhat\u2019s normal\u201d or \u201cmajority rules\u201d kind of way. It\u2019s picking up on patterns. Outliers are easily overlooked. These issues are model issues, and they might get solved at some point. (In the meantime, it means AI might have a harder time helping you decide if your next business idea is a dry well or a blue ocean.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what\u2019s really missing is \u2026 all the stuff we don\u2019t type in. All the stuff we haven\u2019t made public<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about that post that turns a failure into a lesson learned. In packaging it into a story, that experience has been glossed over. Sanitized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s missing from the data, then, are things like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this is where a human really has an advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things that stress test well for AI, or that sound confidently great on paper \u2026 don\u2019t always hold up for humans who are dealing with exactly this kind of stuff on their own behind-the-scenes. We\u2019ve failed and ugly cried and struggled and been through it in a way we\u2019ll never put online for the public, even when we gloss up our failure stories for public consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is as true in technical, data, and SOP spaces as it is in coaching spaces<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For whatever your service category, the question is: Where can you be reasonably and justifiably replaced by AI, and when does it matter that the \u201cugly cry\u201d data is missing from the AI\u2019s data?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my own business, the thing most under \u201cthreat\u201d is probably my 1-to-1 Advisory service<\/a>. Which has meant getting real about where the boundary needs to realistically be for this\u200a\u2014\u200aso I can keep delivering value<\/strong>. Here\u2019s where I\u2019ve landed for now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where is your business situated with respect to how AI is impacting the business landscape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In particular:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d love to hear where you\u2019re sitting with this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 –<\/p>\n\n\n\n This content was featured in the March 2026 Blou Designs newsletter. If you\u2019d like more content like this delivered to your inbox, so you can better align your efforts (one manageable piece at a time), subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We don’t share everything with AI\u2014\u200aand probably never will. In that gap is the boundary you get to set between your service\u2019s value proposition and what folks can reasonably do with AI (instead of you).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[17,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloudesigns.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How I Use AI for My Own Business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Draft Feedback That Maintains POV<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Quick-and-Dirty Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Different Perspectives<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Where AI Hits a Wall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Reimagining the Service Boundary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Points to Ponder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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