My excitement knew no bounds whenever I watched Tony Stark, Iron Man, talking to Jarvis in the Marvel films. I never imagined I would experience anything like it in my own life. I thought it was science fiction we would never catch up with.
I have loved technology since childhood and followed it with curiosity and enthusiasm. But the past few months have felt different. I began seeing AI work on my own projects and experiments in ways I had not expected.
I bought a watch through Haraj, with AI handling the search, conversations, and negotiations with sellers. I watched it bargain, respond, and apologize while I set the rules it would work within. I don’t think my involvement exceeded five percent of the task. I ended up buying the watch at the best price I had hoped for. Something I used to see in films had become part of an ordinary purchase in my life.
Building the Website
The website you are reading now is an even bigger example.
I started this website in 2012 with very limited knowledge of web design and its technical aspects. I used to buy ready-made templates and try to work with them. Writing and publishing an article took considerable effort. Even choosing an image could take me hours, without exaggeration, as I searched, examined, and compared options. I am particular about my choices and want an image that expresses what I mean, but I did not know how to create one from scratch.
Over time, I neglected the website despite my enthusiasm for it. Someone used to help me, but I began to feel uncomfortable going back to him every time I needed support.
Recently, I rebuilt the website using a range of AI tools, from configuration and design to troubleshooting, without starting from a ready-made template. I became so absorbed that I would sometimes stay at the computer until four or five in the morning, with my wife pulling me away so I would go to sleep.
When I say “super employee,” I mean someone whose ability to get things done expands with these tools, while their knowledge remains necessary to guide the tools and judge their results.
My enthusiasm for these possibilities does not mean I ignore concerns about their effect on jobs, or about relying on them so much that we think less for ourselves. I do not dismiss those concerns. But I have chosen to learn, experiment, and understand how these tools can help me in my work and life.
The Skills We Need
Before I started using these tools, I used to give the same advice to anyone who asked me about developing themselves: get good at communication, and learn to work with data.
Be able to organize your thoughts, express them confidently, and prepare a clear presentation that tells a story others can understand. Know how to use Excel, understand dashboards, analyze numbers, and present the results in a way that helps people make sound decisions.
Today, I add a third skill: the ability to work with AI and get the best it can offer. From my experience, two things are essential if you want to benefit from it.
First, understand the tool you are working with: how to interact with it, how it produces answers, what it does well, and where it needs guidance and review. Understand the differences between tools, when to use each one, and how to connect them to serve the work you want to do.
Second, know enough about the subject you are working on to judge the result. Otherwise, you may become like a parrot repeating words it does not understand. You might be impressed by an attractive presentation or a well-organized piece of writing, then submit work full of errors that only become apparent when someone who knows the subject sees it.
I Still Need My Own Knowledge
That is exactly what I realized while working on the website. Despite everything AI could do, my judgment, choices, and review played a major part. At certain stages, I felt the result was not what I wanted, or that the approach needed to change. Without that awareness, I would have accepted what was on the screen and moved on.
A particular instruction, or prompt, might help me get a better result.
But even knowing that I need that instruction requires an understanding of what the work is missing.
I need to know what to ask, notice the problem, and distinguish a genuinely good result from one that only looks good.
I came away convinced that producing work that represents you and expresses what you want requires your experience and knowledge. The more you understand the work, the better you can guide the tool and judge what it gives you.
Taking Responsibility for Learning
If you want to become a “super employee” with AI’s help, you need to put time and effort into developing and educating yourself.
You are primarily responsible for your own development. Your manager can help, and HR and training teams have a role, but they do not carry the responsibility for your learning alone. Do not wait for someone to tell you every time what to learn, how to improve, or what your next step requires.
I like the phrase “Stay hungry, stay foolish,” which Steve Jobs repeated in his Stanford address. I interpret it in my own way: stay hungry for knowledge, keep your curiosity and willingness to ask questions and experiment, and never reach a point where you believe you know enough. With everything AI can now help me do, I feel my need to learn has grown.
