HOW I USE AI IN MY consultancy BUSINESS

HOW I USE AI (THE HONEST VERSION)

There’s a lot of concern about AI right now, and it’s justified. Nobody wants to buy from someone who thinks AI slop and careless data handling is OK. I get that. I feel the same way.

So here’s where I stand. I use AI tools to harvest and index research. There’s just too much happening in AI regulation, policy, and technology for one human to monitor, so AI helps me keep on top of it. It also generates ideas, and I pick the ones worth taking forwards. I have a comprehensive library of thousands of documents that I can brainstorm with.

Everything else is done by me. I am a control freak. AI slop is real, it happens a lot, and correcting it often feels like more work than just writing the thing properly in the first place. So, I write all the final stuff myself. Plus all my press pieces were written by me because journalists have a really dim view of AI! They can sniff it out from 10,000 paces and hate people who peddle it as their own work. So, my writing skills are still heavily used. :)

What I won’t do WITH AI

• let AI write my finished content and pretend it didn’t
• paste customer data, personal information, or anything confidential into AI tools
• use AI providers without checking their data protections and training settings first
• rush something out the door just because an AI tool made it quick to produce
• pretend I don’t use it at all, because that would be worse

The nerdy bit you didn’t ask for

I also tinker with open-source models (OpenClaw, Hermes, Unsloth, embedded models) and run a Homelab server and my own local AI machine. Partly because I’m a nerd who finds it fun, and partly because it means I understand what these tools actually do under the bonnet rather than just parroting the marketing. I’m actively deGoogling and minimising my use of big tech to make sure I am independent. My photo library is indexed with local AI so it stays mine and doesn’t end up as training data for someone else’s model. My MP3 collection lives there too, because some things belong at home. I can search for holiday photos and ask my system to make my own playlists based on the vibe I want, not to push the deals Spotify made with AI music producers to stop paying real artists. #sigh

If anything about how I use AI doesn’t sit right with you, or if an explanation I’ve given doesn’t make sense, I want to hear about it. That kind of feedback helps me do this better.

Colette