You finally decide to splurge. You hire a full-time assistant. This person is sharp — they can handle your emails, juggle your schedule, even book your next physical or that dental cleaning you keep putting off.
There’s only one catch.
You never actually tell them what you want.
You give them no guidance, no examples, and no feedback.
They just… figure it out.
How’s that going to work out?
Right — it’s a dumpster fire. Your inbox is a mess, appointments are double-booked, and somehow you’re now seeing a dermatologist that messaged you on Linked In instead of your CPA across town. Meanwhile, your assistant sits there proudly announcing they’re “learning from experience.”
Now, let’s take it up a notch.
What if you got every single person on your team their very own assistant — and then still gave no one any training on how to actually use that assistant? Do you think your company would run smoother? Do you think your people would produce better work?
Or would it be more likely that these assistants would:
- Fire off emails that make your clients cringe
- Drop meetings in the middle of key project windows
- Churn out pages of pretty but pointless junk that your team has to waste hours rewriting — without ever telling their assistant what they got wrong in the first place?
If this sounds a little absurd, buckle up. Because this is exactly where we’re at with AI.
AI: The World’s Most Eager, Untrained Employee
A lot of business leaders are racing to get AI in the hands of their teams. That’s smart. AI is the cheapest, most relentless assistant you’ll ever hire. It never takes a sick day. Never asks for a raise. Never stops generating ideas.
But here’s the dirty little secret:
Without a playbook, it’s also the fastest way to let chaos in your front door.
Most companies hand out ChatGPT, Copilot, or some other shiny new tool with zero instruction. No one tells their team what they should use it for, what they absolutely shouldn’t, or how to judge if what they’re getting back is brilliance or hot garbage.
So guess what happens?
- Your people start dumping half-baked tasks on the AI.
- The AI gives them half-baked results right back.
- No one checks, no one corrects, no one improves.
- And pretty soon your productivity is lower — not higher — because people are spending their days cleaning up AI’s mess.
A Few Quick (But Critical) Points
- AI isn’t magic. If your team doesn’t give it context (think: three solid sentences minimum), it will gleefully make up garbage to fill the gaps.
- Never drop a link and tell AI “go figure this out.” Copy and paste the content. Tell it exactly what you want. Otherwise, you’re just asking a clueless intern to summarize War and Peace by reading the back cover.
- If your team doesn’t know what success looks like, neither does the AI. That’s on you. If you don’t train your humans to train their machines, don’t be surprised when it all goes sideways.
Don’t Forget the Legal Side: Your Data Is On the Line
This goes way beyond an “acceptable use of AI” policy — though yes, you absolutely need one (we’ve got these written, by the way — reach out if you want them).
It’s about protecting your business.
- Make sure your people know what data is safe to feed into AI. Because once your sensitive information goes into that model, there is no pulling it back out.
- Use AI systems that keep your data segmented and don’t let your proprietary information train someone else’s global model.
- And for the love of your balance sheet, make sure your AI platform is locked down so it can’t rummage around your crown jewels (aka your customer data, contracts, IP) when no one’s looking.
Bottom Line: AI is a Force Multiplier — Or a Liability Multiplier
It all depends on whether you give your team the rules, the guardrails, and the training to use it right.
So here’s your move:
- Build a clear playbook.
- Get your team on the same page.
- And treat AI like what it really is — the most eager assistant you’ll ever have. Just remember: if you don’t give it good direction, it will work tirelessly to screw things up for you.
