#104: Human First, AI Second: Own Your Thinking

Speaker A: Welcome to Stepsero. Modern work is a lot. Let's take it one conversation at a time. My guest today is Leanne Shelton, AI trainer, keynote speaker and author of AI Human Fusion. In this episode, we talk about the overwhelm that many people feel around AI. What over reliance is quietly doing to your brain. The one question you should stop asking about AI is and more. Let's get into it. Leanne, thank you so much for being on the stepseto podcast. Thank you for making the time.

Speaker B: Good. Thanks, Matayo.

Speaker A: Leanne, you're an AI trainer. You're a LinkedIn top voice. You're an author of a book called AI Human Fusion. I'll ask you to comment on a few things AI related. I hope it's okay. I'll take advantage of your expertise for the next 15 minutes or so.

Speaker B: Sure. Hit me.

Speaker A: Now, let me start by telling you something you already know. We reached a point where if you haven't radically embedded AI in your day to day, you feel like you're completely left behind. You look around you. Everyone is building an agent. Everyone is super proficient with AI. Everyone is very confident about, uh, being good at dabbing with AI. It's quite exhausting. So my first question to you is, when you speak about AI in a business room, at a conference, wherever that is, are you usually met with excitement, fear, curiosity? What's the vibe?

Speaker B: Yeah, it's usually a big mix. And some people say, oh, they're feeling excited one day and scared the next day. Um, it all comes down to what the latest update was in the news or something. Someone's created something. Oh, my gosh. Wow. That's going to completely replace a human. Uh, it really is a mixture. And the overwhelm is one of the reasons why I got into the training, um, in the first place and definitely why I wrote my book. Because I'm like, everyone's just caught up in the hype and the overwhelm of that. I need to get onto this thing, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, something like technology has usually been reserved for the IT people, the coding, the people, the engineers. And suddenly this is something that's accessible to the average Joe and Jane. And people just don't know what to do with that power. Like, they're like, I don't, I don't want to break the thing. I don't know how to do it right. And that's often why they come to me, because they want that guidance and, and I just kind of give them a bit of assurance too, that they don't have to stay on top of everything. Like, I personally don't look out for every tool that comes out. I don't look out for every update. Uh, I'm not constantly reading about AI every single day, um, because I prefer to strip it all back and take that human first approach and think, how is AI relevant to me today in this particular task? And that's what I tell people, to strip it all back and, and just work out where the need is first and then see where AI can fit in, not the other way around.

Speaker A: That's quite refreshing to hear, especially coming from an AI trainer. Right. Like, you go human first, AI second, so to speak. There is one aspect of, uh, your content about AI that is about laziness in a way, and I really like that part. I know that, um, you have spoken on other podcasts about it. You've written some content about this and you saying something around the lines of, well, uh, AI is not there to replace you, it's there to amplify you, but if you are lazy, it might actually take over. Can you please elaborate a little bit on that?

Speaker B: Yeah. So now we're a few years into generative AI. I am seeing a lot of this over reliance and laziness happen. And we really need to stop right now and be aware of this taking place because otherwise we're going to have brain atrophy, uh, over the next few years. Forget about humans being replaced. It's a lot actually, your brain not turning to mush. So, um, I'm actually challenging people to have AI free projects or AI free days, or, um, like for me, for example, I am, have always been a writer. That's my background. It's copywriting, marketing, not actually the AI or IT space at all. And a lot of the time last year I was getting AI to help me write articles and, and this year I realized I don't want to do that anymore because my default thinking pattern when I go to write an article now is, oh, I wonder how I can use AI for this? And I'm like, no, uh, this is an art that I've always been really good at. Like, for 20 years, I want to maintain that. So I've challenged myself, even if it means not writing an article every single week, maybe it's every two months. But I'm challenging myself to only write articles myself now, um, might get AI to help me springboard the idea, but I want to maintain that critical and creative thinking part of my brain and not lose it. And unfortunately, I have heard stories of people saying, oh, I've forgotten how to summarize. Like, I was asked to do that for a visa application and I don't know, I actually felt lost because AI has been doing that for me for months or years. And other people as well, like, they're not doing any brainstorming themselves. They're going straight to AI so they're going to forget that art. And that's what I really go look. Yeah, it's very, very cool and shiny. I get it. But we need to be thinking long term. Like, how do we want to be thinking three years down the track? Do we want to still be thinking, yes, we do. Um, and I think about the movie Wall E with those little, you know, the humans are all blobs and is told what to wear and drink and whatever, and they can't think for themselves. That's what we're going to turn into if we're not conscious about saying no to AI at times.

Speaker A: Do you think it's in a way like us seeding control? A bit like when we doom scroll, right? We're on our phone, we just go through, we flip through whatever amount of screens and then we raise our head an hour later and, uh, time has gone and we have no clue what happened. Is it similar when we just cede control entirely to AI when we say we want to write a post, an article, we just let AI do everything? Is that how you think it feels? Is that what you mean by your brain turning to mush?

Speaker B: Yeah, well, um, like, definitely. And I personally took Facebook and Instagram off my phone about, uh, almost two years ago now because I hated that scrolling that my I was doing and going, I hate doing this, I hate. But I can't stop. So I just remove them. And I only have LinkedIn on my phone, which, you know, it's for business purposes. And after a while it gets boring. So I get off my phone. Um, but yeah, it is definitely the same because you hear about people going down the rabbit holes with AI and going, oh, how cool is that? Oh, yeah, I'll do that. Or what if I could do this? And then they end up three hours later with something that doesn't actually help them in their role or their business. Um, and so it's kind of ironic that AI has been brought in to be a productive thing. They can actually be anti productive if you end up getting caught up those rabbit holes. So look, you might think that you're being really like, strategic and maybe you are stimulating your brain by doing that to m an Extent, but you're also forgetting about the ultimate outcome. Um, but yeah, what it's more like the overlaps and laziness that I'm really talking about here is when you do try to do something without AI and realizing you don't have that skill anymore, and I've actually started talking about, you know, a potential new job that may be created which could be very similar to carers of dementia patients, like an AI reversal support person for the people who are like, help me learn again how to write a letter without ask the A.I. how to write a shopping list without A.I. how to brainstorm without A.I. this, uh, we kind of joke. But that could very much happen if we, you know, you don't, you know, you don't lose it, you use it, you lose it. Bit of that. Um, so I really just challenge people. Like, don't feel like because AI is there and maybe it can do a job really, really well for you. But if you love doing that particular task, don't take that away from yourself, like go, no, no, I'm going to do the things that I don't like doing. Um, um, like for example, for me, like yesterday I had a really good sales call with someone use Fathom F A T H O M M um, for like minute taking and everything. Got a transcript and went to Claude and say, could you please use this transcript, use these notes to create a proposal for this client and make sure you're touching onto their needs and what we do and add some extra couple bits and pieces that maybe wasn't in the conversation. And then it gave me a really great first draft because we always want to change it of that proposal and I've actually never done that before. This is actually a new thing for me. But I'm like, oh, this, this is really good. And I made some tweaks, but that is a really great way and intentional way to use AI because I had the human conversation with him and then AI helped me have that effective follow up that will hopefully convert. Fingers crossed.

Speaker A: I, I love this because again, you're an AI trainer. You, you know a lot about AI, you speak about AI every day, but you're, you're keeping it very real, very practical and very human. Um, and uh, you know, it's curious you were, you just mentioned this idea a bit like a black mirror episode of this new job career that may come up and to be fair, like, it's not that unimaginable. Right? It could happen if we, if we keep things the way they are. I myself am A big proponent. Well, proponent maybe is a big word. But I'm a big believer in uh, offline making a massive comeback. I see it, I see it everywhere. You know, flip phones are, are making a comeback. Even the ipod is uh, is now popular again. And, and in, in the same way, I do think that this uh, this pendulum in a way will swing back very hard and people will crave more and more being. Being offline. So what you're saying about the potential new career for people in the future, I hope it doesn't happen. But uh, it's not that unimaginable. It's not that far fetched from reality.

Speaker B: Now unfortunately.

Speaker A: Now this, this being said, like how, how do I know whether I am m being too lazy with AI and if I catch myself being lazy with AI or if I catch say a company organization relying too much on AI, is there a way to put some guardrails to shield people's cognitive ability moving forward?

Speaker B: Yeah. And so I talk to a lot of leaders of teams about this uh, exact thing and I say to look out for those who are overusing it and go down like trying think about the deeper reason why they are overusing it. And there's a couple of things that could be at play. It could be a lack of skills and maybe lack of confidence in themselves to do it themselves. So maybe they're like oh look, I just, oh that, that generated something way better than I could have done. And then you believe going forward that AI is always going to be better than you, so you lose trust in yourself. So therefore there's a gap there. Hey, hey. What's going on? Do you need help in this area? Can we train you on how to create the reports or work in this particular project topic or whatever? Um, that's one area. The other area I really see is burnout. And this is very common. Uh, those are feeling burnt out. I've been there. You can't think for yourself and you're just like, oh, I'm so overwhelmed and so exhausted. I just can't think. AI will just do it good better, you know, done's better than nothing and just move on. And so you need to look out for those cli. Those team members too and kind of say to them, hey, is everything okay? And this is when it becomes a bit of an HR matter and can insert them into the mix. But uh, yeah, you want to make sure that like find out, get curious about why they're using it so much. Or there is another reason and it could be English's second language. And once again, they want to sound more professional. They don't trust themselves a bit to get it right. And therefore this seems to be this amazing fix, but it's not authentic. Ah. And real to who they are. And I think people these days, like you were saying, one human connection. We actually are more open to spelling errors and, you know, um, getting things wrong because it makes us more human. No one wants the polished thing and even think about videos, right? We once wanted polished videos, but then smartphones had cameras. And now if anything's too polished, we're like, nah, I prefer the raw, shaky footage because I know it's real and raw and authentic. And I think that's the same thing. So we just need to look out for. And catch yourself. You're catching yourself, like I did with the articles, thinking, I'll just use AI, like, every single time. You need to really, like, be responsible for yourself and say, okay, how could this turn out in the future if I keep going down this path? Do I want that for myself? No, I need to cut myself off intentionally from AI. And that's very hard to do when you're constantly being bombarded with the hype and overwhelm. You need to be strong and do it for yourself.

Speaker A: Well, I mean, you cutting social media out of your own life now for, for two years, you're, you're, you're walking the walk, right? Like, you're not just talking the talk. So that's, that's pretty cool to, to hear it from you. Can we, you know, we have, let's say, a couple of minutes left, and I want to zoom out a little bit into, into the market. I know that you have some ideas and some, um, opinions about what's going on in the market. You, you wrote about junior roles potentially being affected. There is one thing that, that stuck with me. The fact that you think AI should be treated somehow like a junior employee, somehow like a trainee. Uh, can you tell me more about that?

Speaker B: Yeah. So I think a lot of people use, um, generative AI, you know, the copilot, the claw, the chatgpt, and as a glorified Google search bar. And they're saying, hey, give me this, give me that. And this is when you get the generic output and you end up yelling at your computer screen. But what I encourage is to think of it more like a junior staff member who, yes, can use the Internet. Yes, they want to please you, their boss, but ultimately know nothing about the business, know nothing about your brand voice, know nothing about your customers until you go through an onboarding process and train them. And that's literally what you want to do with these tools. Train it on the business, the context, the business, uh, you know, vision, mission, values, your website, your marketing brochures, anything that's publicly available or you'd happily give to a client. Nothing too sensitive, no P L statements or financials or anything else. Um, and then you want to train it on the brand voice. And this is, um, you know, ex copywriter here. That's very important to ensure it sounds like your company and not like every generic bot that's pumping out content and then the customer. And a lot of people forget to train it on that. But you need it to know who it's creating the business plans, marketing strategies and content for. Otherwise, it's totally going to miss the mark and you're just going to be like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hope it sticks. And so you go through that and you keep saying to it, okay, you've got this. Can I test you and check what it gives you? And just like a junior employee, you would critique it and say, great, that's. That's a good start. But then you come in as the human expert, manager, whatever, and correct it and tell it to go down different paths and things like that. So we need to stand in charge of it. Remember, it's not a human. It's only creating stuff based on patterns. Ah. We still need to trust what we know and guide it accordingly.

Speaker A: That makes a lot of sense. Um, final question for our mini, mini recording mini episode. Is there a question that you hate being asked about AI?

Speaker B: Yes. Which tool should I use? I get that all the time. And I'm like, you're thinking about it all wrong. Like, you're jumping straight to the outcomes. You're going straight to the productivity thing. You need to go backwards to, like, having the right mindset. Like the stuff we've been talking about. How are we going to ethically use it? Not. Um, yeah. How do you get to ensure you avoid bias? How are you going to be responsible for how you use it? Um, not all the time. You need to think about a clear strategy, like, how is AI even relevant to your role and your business? And think of the problem first and can I fix it rather than just jumping onto playing around with the tool. So that's definitely one of my least favorites. Um, look. I do say look. My favorites personally are Claude and Fathom. I have two. I'm an AI trainer. I mainly work with two. And that's saying something that's saying. I just. That's. That's all I need. I need help with crafting strategy documents or some content. I don't need to go. I don't want to go fully automated and everything because I like reaching out to people manually and connecting with them and, you know, and creating other stuff myself. So I personally don't use a lot. And I know other AI trainers go, oh, yeah, I use, like, these 10 tools and here's another five tools I recommend today. And I'm like, stop. That's just too much overwhelm. People don't know which tool to play with, where to start, and then they waste time and forget about what's actually important. So I just say, strip that back and think about, why do I want to use AI.

Speaker A: I'm so happy I didn't ask you that question on this recording.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Leon, um, thank you so much for making the time. It's been a pleasure. It's been really fun, and I hope we can do this at some point again.

Speaker B: Sounds good. Thanks, Matteo.