🧭 THIS WEEK AT AI SECOND ACT
Howdy, I’m super late this week, so it will be a bit shorter sorry. 10:34pm on the night before publishing is a not a good work cadence but here’s what we have. I need to work on the site/email design too.
How to deal with the fear around AI. It’s inevitable that AI will cause huge change and we need to carefully think and consider how to manage that.
👉 You can also just hit "Reply" and let me know what you want more (or less) of, or use the poll to give feedback.
My goal is to make this as valuable and practical as possible as we navigate the new AI era. 🚀
🧰 AI NEWS + LEARNING
Here are a few things I found recently:
State of AI Report 2025 - Very long unfortunately but very interesting - use AI to summarise it!
Gartner report - Generative use cases across industries.
Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.5 - ‘best coding model in the world’!
OpenAI introduced AgentKit - Agent builder in beta so I have not seen it yet.
Another from OpenAI, apps in ChatGPT - not sure yet how useful but cool doing stuff like ‘make me a playlist with xzy style/artists’ towards the spotify app.
🗺️ FEATURED INSIGHT
Change often [always?] creates fear. AI is a HUGE change with a technology leap not seen since the first PC. How can we start trying to manage that? You might have or encounter some of these fears and some tips below how to consider them -
1️⃣ “AI will replace me.”
What it sounds like: “This tool seems cool, but let’s see what others do first.”
How to calm it:
Reframe AI as a teammate, not a threat: “This helps you move faster on the parts only you can do.”
Show them quick wins where AI removes admin work — not judgment work.
Reward usage, not outcomes. The goal is comfort, not perfection.
Ask and discuss what could be done with time freed up by AI.
2️⃣ “I’ll look stupid.”
What it sounds like: “I’m just not technical enough for this.”
How to calm it:
Normalize learning in public: share your own early mistakes.
Make AI playbooks visible — templates, prompts, examples.
Give permission to experiment: “Try it for 30 minutes and show the group one thing you found.”
3️⃣ “This won’t actually help.”
What it sounds like: “We tried automation before; nothing changed.”
How to calm it:
Anchor to real pain: “Remember month-end reporting? Let’s test AI on that.”
Measure visible wins — time saved, fewer reviews, faster decisions.
Publicize success stories inside the org. Belief spreads faster than policy.
💬 Takeaway
Your job isn’t to teach AI first — it’s to make it safe to learn.
Lead with empathy, not evangelism.
When people feel secure, curiosity follows — and that’s when adoption starts.
The people who treat AI as a co-pilot and trusted advisor — not a threat — will find the biggest gains.
btw, another cool use of AI - got super annoying things at work that just waste time?
slow app xyz startup
clunky, slow, inefficient intranet sites
manual process copying data from 1 format to another with some adaptations
etc
If I waste (or have to spend) x seconds/minutes/hours per day or week with problem xyz and we have abc number of employees probably having similar problems and waste, how much total $ is that if say our average hourly rate per employee is $100 per hour?What the $$ rise quickly and be able to get management attention!
Weekly AI strategies for operating executives
— Brett
👉 Hit “Reply” and share your experience — I read every one!