# **AI as Amplifier: Three Shifts That Change How You Work** #AI #Careers *Last updated: September, 2025* Most of us come to AI with the wrong question: _“What can this tool do for me?”_ The better question is: _“What do I want it to amplify in me?”_ Because here’s the catch: AI doesn’t invent your voice. It sharpens or distorts whatever you feed it. And the sharper your intent, the clearer the output. Here are three ways I have found it useful to shift myself in adopting a set of AI tools to get my work done my way. ### **1. Be Opinionated, or Be Drowned Out** Think of AI as a microphone in a noisy room. If you mumble, it amplifies the mumble. If you speak with detail and intent, it carries that signal across the crowd. That’s why vague prompts lead to cookie-cutter answers, while strong, nuanced directions give you something alive with your own style. > **The responsibility flips: it’s not about AI shaping you, it’s about you shaping AI.** ### **2. Trade Rigid Templates for Live Navigation** We’ve been trained to look for step-by-step checklists like “five ways to do X,” “the framework for Y.” But working with AI isn’t like following a recipe. It’s more like navigating a city you’ve never been to. Sometimes you’ll want to take the expressway (let the AI generate bulk drafts). Sometimes you’ll wander down alleys (manual tweaks, side experiments). The trick is comfort in improvisation, knowing when to pivot, when to speed up, when to slow down. If you cling to the old template, you get factory outputs. > **If you let yourself navigate live, you get something only _you_ could have made.** ### **3. Think Beyond the Old Mold (Non-Skeuomorphic Mindset)** Imagine when the first cars came along, if some people insisted they still needed a whip because that’s what you used with horses. That’s skeuomorphism: forcing new tools into old habits. The same happens with AI. If you only use it to replicate the steps you used to do manually, you’ll miss the real magic. The power comes when you ask: _What’s possible now that wasn’t before?_ Take this very piece. We’re co-writing it through voice, weaving in personal style guides and writing archetypes. That workflow didn’t exist before and that’s the point. > **It’s not about mimicry. It’s about new possibilities.** ### **Closing Reflection** So here’s the shift: - **AI is your amplifier.** Feed it strong signals. - **AI is your co-navigator.** Forget rigid checklists. - **AI is your frontier.** Don’t drag old habits into new terrain. The more you see it this way, the less you worry about whether AI will replace you. Because it can’t. It only replaces the version of you that hides behind templates and defaults. The version that shows up with opinion, improvisation, and imagination? That’s the one AI makes louder.