Where AI Actually Helps (And Where It Doesn't)

Not every problem needs AI. In fact, most don’t. The trick is knowing which ones do — and that starts with understanding the problem, not the technology.

The Framework

Before you reach for an LLM, ask three questions:

1. Is this a pattern recognition problem? AI excels at finding patterns in large, messy datasets. If your problem is structured and rule-based, a simple script or spreadsheet formula is probably better.

2. Is good enough, good enough? AI outputs are probabilistic. If you need exact answers every time, you need a different tool.

3. Do you have the data? AI needs examples to learn from. If your knowledge is all in people’s heads, step one is getting it written down — not buying an AI platform.

This isn’t anti-AI. It’s pro-usefulness. The best AI implementations are the ones nobody notices because they just make existing work faster and clearer.