Five quick tips and mental models for using AI successfully in June 2026
Strategy and concepts to help make better use of AI—ask your favorite chatbot for the tactics and details.
Imagine that we just discovered a new continent. Somehow it evaded our explorers and satellites until now. It’s full of highly-educated people that know most everything about science, humanity, our technology, and history. They can’t leave their continent, but you can communicate with them via your computer by typing or talking. They love working on whatever you ask of them.
Working with AI is much more like working with people than it is like working with a computer. Until now, computers and software have been rigidly predictable; if A then B, every time. But have you ever managed people? You can write SOPs and give instructions all you want—the results you get are not guaranteed. They fall on a bell curve. AI is like that.
Working successfully with AI requires understanding opportunity and risk. You need to learn to evaluate and balance these. It’s not good or bad. It is. Learn its characteristics, capabilities, limitations, and tendencies. Keep your eyes open, because these things change (like people). Then figure out how what is can help you achieve what you’re trying to do.
Start at the very highest level of the result you want. Not “how do I add a call-to-action button in the header of my website?”. Instead: “I want more incoming well-qualified leads. Here’s where we are at now. This is our website, our main social media pages, and what we do for marketing and business development. Where should we start?”
Assume nothing. Open your mind. Blow up preconceptions. Indulge curiosity. Imagine literally anything is possible and start asking questions.