You ask AI to write an important email. Ten seconds later, there it is: clear, professional, and grammatically perfect.
And somehow, it’s terrible.
The opening is flat. The tone is off. There’s a paragraph no one needs. AI produced a polished draft in seconds, but you still have to know what’s worth keeping, what needs fixing, and what “good” actually looks like.
That’s where experience shows. People who mastered their craft before generative AI arrived spent years writing bad drafts, delivering mediocre presentations, watching ideas fail, and hearing exactly why. Along the way, they developed five skills that now determine how effectively anyone uses AI:
**Judgment.** A seasoned consultant can ask AI for ten strategies and instantly spot the two that are most likely to work—because she’s seen what succeeds and what collapses in the real world.
**Imagination.** AI can generate twenty ideas in seconds. Imagination is what you contribute: an unexpected connection, a fresh framing of the problem, or an insight no generic prompt would have produced.
**Standards.** AI makes it easy to settle for “good enough.” Standards are what keep you going. You find the weaker argument, sharpen the example, or rewrite the opening because you know the work can be better.
**Empathy.** An experienced manager reads an AI-written layoff note and anticipates how employees will actually feel. She spots language that is accurate yet still lands poorly.
**Taste.** Taste is the ability to recognize when something feels generic, awkward, or flat—even when nothing is obviously wrong. Years of seeing both excellent and mediocre work build that instinct.
These five capabilities matter enormously when you work with AI. And if you haven’t developed them yet, AI itself can help you build them.
How to Use AI to Develop the Skills You Need
Build judgment by deciding first.
Before asking AI what to do, form your own view. Then ask it to challenge your choice and surface what you may have missed. When possible, run the same question past someone whose judgment you trust. Notice where the three of you align—and where you don’t.
Build imagination by starting with your own idea.
Bring AI an observation, a question, or a half-formed thought and ask it to help you develop it. This keeps you in the role of originator rather than mere selector of AI-generated options.
Build standards by refusing to stop at “good enough.”
Don’t accept the first finished-looking version. Identify what could still be stronger and improve it. Then ask AI—or an experienced colleague—what they would change. Over time you’ll get better at spotting those weaknesses yourself.
Build empathy by having AI play the other person.
Before sending an important message, ask how an employee, customer, or executive might react. What might confuse them? What might bother them? What will they care about most? Whenever you can, also show the draft to someone who knows the audience well; they often catch reactions you didn’t anticipate.
Build taste by comparing options.
Ask AI for several different versions, choose the one you prefer, and explain why. Then share them with someone whose taste you respect—ideally someone who also knows your voice. If they choose differently, ask them to explain their reasoning.
People who developed these skills before AI have a head start. Those developing them now have something previous generations never had: a tool that can deliver immediate feedback and almost unlimited opportunities to practice.
Use AI to get the work done. Just make sure you’re also using it to get better.