How to Keep Your Expertise When Using AI Tools

What are AI tools good for?
Why Human oversight is needed when using AI Chat.

“Use AI or be left behind” is a message blaring loud and clear across the Internet and business spheres of influence. It’s easy to succumb to fear of replacement by these tools as their virtues of generation ability are extolled. Can we benefit from using AI and still keep the human touch and value of our expertise? In a word, yes. Here’s what AI tools are good for, and why human expertise and oversight is crucial when using AI tools.

3 common uses for AI chat tools that won’t replace your expertise:

1. Brainstorming Moderator

AI tools are great for brainstorming sessions. First, tell your chat the context, history, and skills of your team. Follow that up with some of your ideas and ask it to refine and help narrow them down. From the recommendations, you’ll see which ones you prefer and get a clearer idea on what you want to start with. You’re still using your expertise to do the work, but using AI as an impartial third party can help get the project moving sooner, rather than getting bogged down by too many good ideas.

2. Prose Enabler

If you’re like me, you might start your writing with a terse outline of what you’d like to cover. Sometimes you struggle to transform your notes into a readable, flowing text. AI tools can suggest transitions and ways to fill out your point with interesting examples. If you like the suggestions you can write them into your own voice and style. It is rare that text output from AI will be perfect to copy and paste right out the gate. Reading and rewriting are key to keeping the content fresh, accurate, and true to the author.

3. Technical Troubleshooter

For a professional web developer, this is “the big one”. Letting AI write code? I’d rather not. But in the case where the app is not getting the expected result, the browsers aren’t displaying the elements as desired, or maybe you just want to make sure your syntax is as efficient as it can be, AI code writing can definitely help. Again, context is everything, and you’ll get best results letting it know your stack, platform, and desired outcome. But the generated code is not at all the stopping point. As my colleagues will confirm, developing is 90% testing. Generated code should be tested even more so! Human expertise and oversight is absolutely needed here to be sure the code is secure, accessible, and works for the people it is meant to serve.

What AI tools cannot do

While they do learn from human input, they cannot replace human critical thinking skills. Chatbots cannot replace your lived experience, which also grows and changes. “Machine learning” can only learn on what it is given, and it is not given everything. It is highly recommended, while using AI for any purpose, to keep your skepticism, keep your core values, remember your expertise and backup your decision making with your own research and skills. 

How our jobs might change

Many workers already find that their roles require much more time in the chat bubble than in the text editor. We will find as we move forward that writing efficient AI prompts is a skill we can sharpen to better use the tool. We have seen this with every leap of technology: some jobs do end, yes, but some simply change, and others are created. Not everyone will find the new tool helpful, but for those that do, their working life will change accordingly. Will this particular leap be a net positive or negative? We can’t know that yet, but adapting to change is a human trait, and so it will be seen how we do with our new tools.

Use the tools, and your own skills too

To conclude, yes, you can gain efficiency, new perspectives and add capacity to your schedule by utilizing AI Chat to assist you, without removing the benefit of your special expertise. While it may be tempting to think we can offload all our work to the machine, and then scary to think our jobs may be replaced by it, the human customers, clients, and colleagues need fellow humans to run the show, evaluate results, and direct action. Human oversight is necessary to ensure that the products that we make do not cause harm, the apps and websites that we create are secure and functional, and indeed to drive the spirit and voice of the business. You and your skills are still who is providing value to the project at hand.

What are you feeling about using AI in your business?

Note: No AI tools were used in the writing of this article, except for helping to find a compelling title. The author themself came up with the winning title.