How I Use AI Without Letting It Steal My Pencil

I use AI the same way I use a very sharp pencil: as a tool.

It does not magically create taste, judgment, experience, or a good idea. It is only as useful as the person holding it—and fortunately, I have been holding creative tools for a very long time.

For me, AI is part researcher, part editor, part translator, part brainstorming partner, and part assistant who never gets tired of hearing me say, “No, that is not quite what I meant.”

It is especially helpful with client emails.

You know the kind: the client has the entire project beautifully organized in their head, but the email contains six words, two attachments, and a sentence that says, “You know what I mean.”

AI helps me figure out what they said, what they probably meant, what they forgot to mention, and which question will save us from seventeen rounds of revisions.

I also use it to bounce around ideas, organize research, polish writing, troubleshoot technology, develop concepts, translate confusing information into normal human language, and occasionally create content for a four-and-a-half-pound dog who believes she is the creative director.

The final decisions are still mine.

I choose the concept. I judge the design. I rewrite the words. I reject the bad ideas. I refine the good ones. I know when something is technically correct but creatively wrong.

AI does not replace the artist, designer, writer, or thinker.

It simply gives us another very useful tool—and sometimes a wonderfully patient assistant who does not mind when the brief changes for the fifth time.