AI

AI Update: Your AI Dos and Don'ts for 2026

AI now feels like the first day back at school. Familiar, but with a new vibe. In 2025 it was a handy utility. In 2026 it becomes a creative partner-one that helps shape ideas without taking the pen from your hand.

Here's what to bring into the new year and what to leave behind.

Take These Into 2026

The productivity stack that actually moves work forward

Think of AI as an unseen chief of staff. Not to do your thinking, but to clear the underbrush so your thinking shows up stronger. Use it to synthesize complex briefs, prep for meetings, and manage feedback loops so your brain stays on the hard problems.

ChatGPT Enterprise can be the backbone through custom modules. Pair it with Perplexity and Claude for quick research checks and voice-based thought structuring when you need to talk ideas out loud.

• Practical move: Working late with a spark of an idea? Open Claude or Perplexity in voice mode. Ask it to push back. Set guardrails so it doesn't agree with everything. Treat it like you're sparring-sometimes with an intern, sometimes with a senior strategist.
• Build a mini "idea OS": an idea test, briefing templates, and a consistent research sanity-check loop. Keep it all searchable and shared.

Collaboration tools that expand the table

The best work happens when more people meet the idea earlier. AI makes that easy even when the team isn't in the same room. Use shared AI workspaces for strategy, creative, and production to iterate in real time.

Bring in fast-turn visual and audio tools like Envato and Artlist to set mood and direction alongside clients. Treat it like a mood board on steroids. It builds alignment faster, sharpens the brief, and cuts meetings without cutting clarity.

• Practical move: Start one shared workspace for early creative. Add a few reference images, a 30-second audio sample, and a one-paragraph concept. Ask the team-and the AI-to suggest three angles, risks, and a tighter hook.

Stress-testing the work

AI's quiet superpower: it lets you test ideas before they hit the room. Run concepts through persona simulations, clarity passes, and narrative proofing. You're not outsourcing creativity-you're adding friction so the idea gets stronger.

• Three-prompt loop: 1) Explain this idea in one sentence a busy person would care about. 2) Who is this for and what would make them ignore it? 3) Where could this fall apart legally, ethically, or practically?
• If the answers feel soft, refine the idea and rerun the loop. Raise the floor before anyone else sees it.

Leave These Behind

Ambiguity in how we use AI

Stop being coy. Using AI isn't cheating and it's not a secret. Teams and clients deserve to know when AI is in the process and when it isn't. Clear language builds trust and sets the bar for both human and AI contributions.

• Simple line to add in docs and decks: "AI-assisted for structure; final creative by the team."

The sea of AI slop

You know the type: unedited output passed forward without a single critical check. It wastes time and it teaches juniors the wrong lessons. AI isn't the problem; leadership is.

• Non-negotiable: A human edit pass before any AI-generated text, image, or concept moves forward. Read it. Challenge it. Align it to the brief.
• Also, stop the spray-and-pray cold emails stuffed with bad data. That's noise pretending to be progress.

Fear of the tools

Fear is outdated. Our field has evolved through every shift in how ideas are made and shared. This is just the next one. Your edge is in how you play with the tools, not whether you avoid them.

• Host low-pressure play sessions with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Envato, Artlist, Sora, or whatever's relevant. No deliverables. Just curiosity.
• You're a few changed study habits away from a passing grade-maybe even a gold star.

Quick setup for the year

• Define your stack: core chat model, research checker, voice note tool, and a visual/audio reference tool.
• Write two policies: disclosure ("where AI helps") and review ("who signs off, when").
• Create one shared AI workspace for early concepts and stress tests.
• Run every idea through clarity, audience fit, and risk before review.

2026 will reward people who think clearly and ship fast. Use AI to clear the noise, expand collaboration, and test harder. Keep the craft human. Make the process honest. That's the work.

If you want structured ways to practice these habits at work, explore role-based learning paths here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.