When to use AI

The sharpest AI skill isn't a prompt trick. It's the judgment to look at a task and know — before you start — whether AI belongs here at all.

Read the task, not the tool

“Should I use AI?” is the wrong question. The right one is “is AI a good fit for this task?” — and that depends on the task's shape. Four features decide it: the stakes, whether you can check the result, whether it needs fresh facts the model may not have, and whether it touches private data. On low-stakes, checkable work, let AI run. On high-stakes work you can't verify, keep a person in charge — a human in the loop.

The four dials, together

The features interact. High stakes plus easy to check means “use it, then verify.” High stakes you can't check means “draft only — you own the decision.” Private or sensitive data means keep it out of the chat, however helpful it would be. Facts newer than its cutoff means give it the facts or a search rather than trusting its memory. Judgment is reading which combination you're in.

A default posture

A simple stance carries most cases: use AI freely for drafts, ideas, and anything you'll check anyway; slow down when the stakes rise, the answer is hard to verify, the facts must be current, or the data is sensitive. Watch for automation bias — the pull to accept the machine's output because it's the machine's. The skilled user isn't the one who uses AI for everything, or for nothing. It's the one who knows, task by task, which it is.

• —Ask “is AI right for this task?”, not “is AI good?”
• —Weigh four features: stakes, verifiability, need for fresh facts, and privacy.
• —Use it freely for checkable drafts; keep a human in charge when stakes are high and checking is hard.