Confessions of an AI Creator: Beyond Commas and Semicolons

People have strong feelings about AI's growing role in creative work. Understandably. I'm not here to tell anyone how to feel, but I do want to offer a pragmatic vision of what's emerging.

These are notes from the frontier.

At the end of the day, whether you're telling a story, persuading an audience, or building a product, the fundamentals haven't changed. What's different is the toolkit and the level at which we can now engage.

I've been experimenting with AI in any way I can think of. I've been writing, creating, building, failing, learning and teaching. Early on, I was hesitant to share these experiments. There's anxiety—and sometimes suspicion—about what's "authentic" when tools are changing this fast. The fear is that creativity becomes mechanical, or somehow less valuable.

My conclusion is the opposite: with thoughtful intent, AI doesn't diminish creation, it expands it.

Yes, AI can churn out low-value, generic work with ease and at scale. That's not the future I'm betting on. Used deliberately and thoughtfully, these tools help us move beyond the tactical, automatable pieces and focus more on what's strategic, meaningful, and uniquely human.

To make this real, let's walk through how I recently approached producing a recent post, "Permission and Purpose: AI Adoption Is Cultural Change, Not Just Technical Integration," for my newsletter as a writer but mostly as a curator, orchestrator and editor.

"The creator's fingerprint matters more, not less, in an AI-accelerated workflow."

Step 1: Start Raw, Start Human

Every project begins with raw material. In my case, that means voice notes, fragments, problem statements, and the messiness that comes with genuine exploration. These early artifacts—voice memos, sketches, rough outlines—were unstructured but focused on getting the thoughts and ideas out. The goal at this stage isn't polish, it's signal.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Start any creative project by capturing honest exploration. Don't sanitize or filter too early—capture the real questions, the core problems, the spark.

Step 2: Clarify the Strategic Frame

Once I've assembled the raw material, I bring in AI as a thinking partner. For this project, I fed transcripts and notes into ChatGPT and asked for a structured outline, centered on the main thesis. The AI's value here isn't in generating ideas from scratch, but in surfacing structure and making sense of complexity.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Use AI to clarify, organize, and pressure-test your thinking. The most valuable creative work is built on a clear frame.

Step 3: Reorganize for Clarity and Impact

No AI-generated outline gets it 100% right. My role is to actively curate, moving pieces around, cutting what doesn't fit, and reinforcing what matters. In this case, I stripped out tactical sections that diluted the central argument, even consulting AI to sanity-check my edits. The aim was coherence and impact, not just completion.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
AI is your collaborator, not your director. The creator's job is to shape, edit, and ensure everything serves the core vision.

Step 4: Drive Openings and Closings

Whether it's a product launch, a story, or a strategic memo, the introduction and conclusion set the context and the why. AI can draft options, but the human touch is essential to ground the work and drive it home. I rewrote the intro to clarify value for the audience, and the conclusion to reinforce the call to action and broader implications.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Never delegate context-setting or sense-making. The beginning and end of any creation are where trust and direction are built.

Step 5: Curate External Signals

I supplemented my work with real-world signals: memos from leaders at Shopify, Gumroad, and Duolingo. Feeding these into AI, I surfaced supporting quotes and case studies, but always with a critical eye. What reinforces the story? What's just noise?

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Let AI surface possibilities, but curate what actually moves your audience or user. Relevance beats volume, every time.

Step 6: Format for Real Human Consumption

Attention is the real currency. Originally, my project was structured linearly as prose, a single narrative, hard to scan. Using AI, I experimented with more modular, punchy formats. The result? A product (whether article, report, or presentation) that's easier to engage with, share, and act on.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Test formats. Let AI show you alternatives, but optimize for your actual audience's habits and needs.

Step 7: Edit, Iterate, and Own the Final Product

No matter how good the tooling, the creator's fingerprint matters. My last pass is always human: tightening, reframing, ensuring alignment with intent. The finished piece isn't AI-generated; it's AI-accelerated, shaped by human priorities.

💡 TAKEAWAY:
Quality and intent are human responsibilities. AI scales your reach, but only you can define your standards.

This single case study reveals patterns that extend beyond content creation. As I've reflected on this process and similar experiments, several broader principles have emerged about how creative work evolves when AI enters the picture. These insights aren't just about writing—they apply to any domain where human judgment meets technological capability.

"Your role as a creator is evolving from executor to orchestrator."

The Future of Creation

Shift your creative value from execution to orchestration

Adopting AI strategically isn't just about keeping pace; it's about actively positioning yourself and your organization to thrive in a rapidly changing creative landscape. Embracing AI means shifting your value from execution to orchestration, a shift that secures your relevance and amplifies your impact.

The future doesn't belong to those who fear automation but to those who leverage it thoughtfully. Your competitive advantage won't be in resisting AI, but in clearly defining how to wield it to enhance your creative capabilities and organizational agility.

To future-proof your creative work:

• Prioritize capturing honest, human-driven insights.
• Use AI to structure and refine, not originate.
• Thoughtfully curate and edit to serve a clear vision.
• Anchor your creations in human-centric empathy and real-world context.
• Ruthlessly prioritize content that meaningfully engages your audience.
• Always maintain human oversight in editing and quality assurance.

AI isn’t eroding creativity—it’s shifting where our creative value lies. The real opportunity is to lead that shift.

Meta-Lessons for Creators Navigating AI Anxiety

These patterns extend well beyond writing. They point to a broader creative shift—one that redefines how we work in any field where human judgment meets machine capability.

• Authenticity Drives Distinction: Your unique perspective becomes your edge
As automation increases, your unique human curiosity and voice become even more crucial. AI amplifies what's authentically yours—it doesn't replace it.

• From Executor to Orchestrator: Your value shifts to curation and direction
Your role as a creator is evolving. Rather than merely producing content, you'll increasingly coordinate, refine, and strategically direct creative outcomes.

• Strategic Vision Over Tactical Execution: Focus on frameworks, not details
What differentiates you now isn't flawless execution of basic tasks but your ability to set clear strategic frameworks and priorities. Structure and clarity of vision trump superficial perfection.

• Empathy and Context as Core Competencies: Invest in what AI can't do
The human edge remains rooted in empathy, judgment, and contextual understanding—qualities AI complements but can't replicate.

This is the future of work, when AI becomes as seamless and embedded as the red squiggly lines under our typos. The tools will keep evolving. But intent, craft, and clarity? Still ours to own.