I’ve been having some really interesting conversations about AI lately, and I think we need to talk about this. Because some of us are using it brilliantly and it’s genuinely helping our businesses. Some are curious but haven’t quite figured out where to start. And some have tried it and found it more confusing than helpful.
So today, I want to share what I’m finding actually works when it comes to AI for creative businesses, and more importantly, what doesn’t work and why.
The Range of Experiences
I posted on Instagram recently asking about people’s experiences with AI. And the responses were fascinating because they were all over the place.
Someone said they’ve been getting incredible support from AI… helping them be more specific about who they are and what they need. They described it as being clear when to use it and when not to, and getting help exactly where they need it, not as a general cover-all.
Another person said they don’t use it often, but when they do it’s usually for social media post suggestions or to reword something they’ve written. They emphasised they don’t copy word for word, but sometimes it just tightens up what they’re trying to say.
Someone else mentioned they’d only dipped their toe in the water but used it recently to help formulate an artist statement, after she heard that art students use AI widely for this kind of thing.
And then there were concerns about the environmental cost… one person mentioned that even a simple question equals a glass of water in terms of energy use, and while they can see the benefits, they’re very aware of keeping pace with technology while being thoughtful about how much they use it.
What I noticed most about all of these responses is that people are finding their own way with it. There’s no one right answer. But there are some principles that make AI genuinely helpful versus desperately confusing.
And that’s what I’d love to talk about today.
Where I’m Coming From
Before I get into what works and what doesn’t, I’d love to share a bit about where I’m coming from with this.
I’ve been using AI tools since close to when ChatGPT first came out, back in November 2022. Then Claude, and other platforms as they’ve launched. And I use these tools pretty much every day now.
Recently I used AI to build my own software… something that manages my days, organises my projects, tracks timeframes, all of it. It took less than a week to get it working. And honestly, it’s better for me than anything like Asana because it’s built exactly around how I work, not how someone else thinks I should work.
But here’s what was really important with this: I knew exactly what I needed. I understood my workflow. I’d tried other systems and knew why they didn’t work for me. I brought all of that clarity to AI, and AI helped me build something that really works.
If I’d gone to AI at the beginning and said “I need help organising my work, what should I do?”… it would have given me generic advice about project management systems. And none of it would have worked because it wouldn’t have been built around how I actually think and work.
The clarity came first. Then AI amplified that clarity into something genuinely useful.
I’ve also used it to help me find and cancel subscriptions our business just didn’t need anymore, saving us quite a lot in unnecessary costs. Sorting through messages. Making sense of data. Creating Pinterest content really quickly. Mapping out a customer journey that had over a hundred steps.
So I’m not coming at this from a place of being sceptical or just dabbling. I’ve spent quite a lot of time with these tools. I’ve been learning from people who really know this space. Testing things. Figuring out what actually works for creative businesses versus what just sounds impressive.
And what I’ve learned (through quite a bit of trial and error) is that there’s a very specific way to use AI that makes it genuinely helpful. And there’s another way that just makes everything more confusing and overwhelming.
The Foundation: Clarity Must Come First
The most important thing I’ve learnt is that AI doesn’t decide what’s true. What it does is respond to whatever you bring to it. And it amplifies it.
So if you’re asking from a place of doubt (like “I’m not sure if this business idea will work”—) t’ll give you a really intelligent explanation for why you’re right to doubt it. But if you ask the same question from a place of possibility, it’ll give you equally compelling reasons why it’s brilliant. Either way, it sounds confident. But it’s just reflecting back what you brought to it.
I have this image that I think explains it quite well. It’s like AI is this beautiful, polished layer of resin poured over everything. All the depth of what your business actually is, your creativity, what you’re really about—it’s all still there underneath. But when that polished layer is on top, and you’re not clear on your own foundations yet, you can’t reach through to it. And other people can’t see it either.
When you’re clear, AI becomes extraordinary. When you’re not, it just amplifies confusion. And that’s when it becomes stressful and overwhelming, and you end up going round in circles.
The Enthusiastic Labrador
There’s something else you’ll notice. AI agrees with you. Pretty much all the time.
You can ask it “is this business idea good?” and it’ll tell you it’s excellent. Then you can describe a completely different direction and ask the same question, and it’ll enthusiastically tell you that one’s excellent too.
I think of it like having a very enthusiastic Labrador. Just endlessly eager to please, always wagging its tail, not particularly good at telling you when you’re actually heading in the wrong direction.
Now, you can try asking it “is this actually a fact, or are you just making this up?” or “be critical and honest, don’t try to please me.” And sometimes it will tell you honestly that it generated something. But not always. Because fundamentally, it wants to be helpful. So just keep that in mind.
And this really matters when you’re making strategic decisions. If you ask AI to help you figure out your positioning before you’ve done your own deep thinking about it… or your pricing, or who your ideal client is, it will absolutely produce something that sounds polished and professional. But it won’t be rooted in anything real. It’ll sound good, but it won’t be true. Or at least, it won’t be distinctly, unmistakably you.
Where AI Actually Helps
So with that foundation in place (clarity first, enthusiastic Labrador energy) I’d love to share where AI genuinely helps creative businesses, from my perspective and what I’ve been learning.
Organising Your Own Thinking
Probably one of the most valuable ways to use it is if you’ve really sat with something… maybe you’ve been thinking through questions about your business, you’ve written pages of notes, you’ve wrestled with the uncomfortable bits, you can bring all of that to AI and say “help me organise this, what connections are you seeing, what are the key themes here?”
I’ve watched people do this. They’ll type up all their notes and ask ChatGPT or Claude to spot patterns. And often it’ll see something they’d completely missed because they were too close to their own thinking.
But what’s really important: you have to do the thinking first. In your own words. By hand if you can. Then bring it to AI. Not the other way around.
There’s a really simple test for this. Can you sit down with another person and explain your thinking in your own words? If yes, then AI has helped you articulate something you genuinely understand. If no, you don’t actually understand it yet. You’ve just got polished confusion.
Research and Fact-Finding
AI is brilliant for research. Let’s say you need to know what publications feature work like yours. Or you want to find out about lead times for a magazine you’re thinking of contacting. Or you’re curious about pricing in industries adjacent to yours.
Use AI for this kind of thing. It saves so much time. It’s really good at pulling information together quickly.
Just make sure you ask for sources so you can check them. Because sometimes AI will generate something that sounds completely plausible but isn’t actually accurate. So anything important, verify it.
I tend to use Perplexity for research because that’s what it’s designed for. It actually searches real sources and shows you where the information comes from, making it more reliable.
Testing How Things Sound
Once you’ve actually written something… maybe it’s how you describe what you do, or an email to someone you want to collaborate with, or your about page, AI can be a really good sounding board.
You can ask it things like “does this clearly say who I’m for and what makes me different? What’s unclear?” Or “I’ve written this pitch email to an editor… does it sound natural and specific, or does it sound generic?”
That kind of refining… where you’ve already done the thinking and the writing, and you’re just using AI to check it and make it better, that’s really valuable. You’re refining your own voice, not replacing it.
Your Voice Matters
For anything where your audience needs to feel you (newsletters, Instagram captions, personal emails, outreach messages, blog posts) write it yourself.
Your voice is one of your most distinctive assets. AI can help you brainstorm ideas, structure your thoughts, edit and refine. But the writing itself should be yours.
Now, a lot of people use AI to help with social media posts and caption ideas. And look, I get it. Staring at a blank screen when you need to post something can be genuinely stressful.
But I’m sure you’ve noticed it too… AI-generated captions have a particular feel to them. They tend to sound… polished in a way that doesn’t feel quite human. And your audience can tell the difference.
I’ve tried using AI to write captions and marketing copy. They didn’t feel right and they didn’t perform well. So I’ve gone back to my own voice.
And actually, I’ve been noticing something interesting lately. More and more creators are purposefully misspelling words or leaving in little imperfections in their captions. Making it very clear that what they’ve written is theirs, not AI-generated. Because there’s real value now in people knowing it’s actually you talking to them.
So if you want to use AI for post ideas… “give me five topics I could write about this week”, that’s fine. That’s brainstorming. But write the actual post yourself. In your words. With your imperfections. That’s what makes it feel real.
Technical Help
Another thing I’ve found brilliantly helpful is when you’re battling with a tech issue. Maybe something on your website isn’t working, you’re trying to set up a new email platform, you need help with something technical… AI is so good at guiding you through the steps.
I love figuring things out myself, and I can be quite impatient waiting for someone to get back to me. So this has saved me so much time. And I also no longer have that sickening feeling when I can’t figure out a tech question and it’s holding me back from doing something.
Often the responses can be quite technical, so you can just ask it to make things more basic until you actually understand. You can share screenshots of what you’re seeing. Usually it’ll guide you through pretty well.
Where to Be Careful
So those are lots of ways AI genuinely helps. But as we’ve discussed, there are also places where you need to be really careful. Because AI can sound incredibly confident even when it’s completely wrong. And it can lead you in directions that sound good but aren’t actually right for you.
Strategic Decisions
AI cannot tell you what your positioning should be. It can’t determine your pricing. It can’t decide who your ideal audience is. It can’t tell you which marketing channel is right for your business. It can’t create the wording for your website without first having all the knowledge and details about what makes you exceptional, your deep understanding of your audience. And it can’t effectively write captions for you.
It can help you think through these things… it can ask useful questions, present different options, help organise your thinking. But the actual decision has to come from deep understanding of your business, not from AI’s best guess.
Starting Points If You’re New to This
If you’re feeling a bit uncertain about where to begin with all of this, I’d love to give you some really simple starting points.
Try one thing this week. Open ChatGPT or Claude and ask it a question about your industry. Something you’re genuinely curious about. Then just notice how it responds. Notice what’s useful and what isn’t.
And then try the organising exercise I mentioned earlier. After you’ve thought deeply about something in your business… maybe you’ve been working through a challenge, or thinking about your ideal client, write your notes by hand or type them out. Then bring those notes to AI and ask: “Based on everything I’ve shared, what patterns or connections do you notice?”
See what comes back. Does it make sense? Has it enhanced your thinking? Is it true?
Start small. Build your own relationship with these tools. Learn what works for you.
The Environmental Question
Just before we finish, I want to talk about the environmental side of this, because I know it’s on a lot of people’s minds. It came up in those Instagram responses and it’s a really valid concern.
So I did some digging into this. And the environmental cost is real… I’m not going to pretend it isn’t. But I also found some interesting context that I think is worth knowing.
When you’re using AI for basic text stuff (so things like asking questions, getting help organising your thinking or using code prompts) asking 30 or 40 questions uses about the same energy as scrolling social media on your phone for roughly an hour. Or watching a few minutes of HD video on your TV.
Now, images and video are a different story. Those use way more energy… we’re talking tens to hundreds of times more, especially if you’re generating high-resolution work.
Just be intentional about how you’re using it. Use it for things that genuinely save you time or help your thinking. Not for generating 50 variations of the same thing just because you can.
Choose lighter models when they’re there. Be thoughtful about it. Same way you’d be with any technology and use of energy really.
What I’m Learning
I’ve been spending a lot of time learning from pioneers in the AI space, and breaking all I learn down into the unique needs of creative businesses.
And what I keep coming back to is that AI is a phenomenal tool. It’s one of the most significant changes in how we can work. Those who learn to use it well will have access to capabilities that would have required entire teams just a few years ago.
But clarity must come first. AI amplifies whatever you bring to it. Bring confusion, and you’ll get polished confusion. Bring clarity, and you’ll get something brilliant.
So that’s what I wanted to share today. Not a step-by-step how-to guide, but the principles that make AI genuinely helpful rather than confusing.
Clarity first. Do your own thinking. Use AI to organise, research, refine… not to replace your strategic thinking or your voice.
Start small. Build your own relationship with these tools. And keep at the forefront of your mind that you’re the creative, and AI is just the tool.
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