My Boss Loves ChatGPT. Do I Have To?
A worker in their late 50s faces a familiar workplace tension: their 40-year-old boss has discovered ChatGPT and now runs nearly everything through it, from drafts to document analysis. The employee has pointed out specific errors and inappropriate revisions, but the boss continues the practice anyway.
This scenario reflects a broader pattern among managers encountering AI tools for the first time. Many bosses lack what might be called a "natural immune defense to stupid ideas." When they encounter breathless coverage of AI in the media, on LinkedIn, or in podcasts, they struggle to distinguish between uses that actually help their business and those that create problems.
Let embarrassment do the teaching
The employee's best initial move is patience. This fixation may fade once the boss experiences real consequences from AI-generated errors - a meeting with hallucinated facts, an email with nonsensical revisions sent to a client, or a presentation missing the point entirely.
Embarrassment is an effective teacher. If the boss sends out a badly rewritten email or proposes a flawed analysis based on AI output, he'll begin to understand the tool's actual limitations.
Use AI as a counterweight
If the trend persists, the employee should consider a different approach: become strategically AI-savvy themselves. The boss appears more concerned with the fact that AI is being used than with how it's used, which creates opportunity.
When asked to "run a draft through ChatGPT," the employee can comply without changing their work. A prompt like "proofread this without otherwise changing it" satisfies the boss's requirement while protecting the original draft.
Better yet, the employee can use AI as a check on the boss's own AI revisions. Feed the boss's inappropriate ChatGPT rewrites back into ChatGPT or a competitor model like Claude, with clear instructions about length, topic, and purpose. Sophisticated models - particularly paid versions - are reliable enough to identify when a draft misses the mark, provided the specifications are clear.
The employee's decades of experience remain valuable. AI can't replicate that depth. But it can serve as a neutral arbiter when the boss won't listen to human judgment.
For managers navigating similar situations, understanding both the capabilities and limitations of these tools is essential. Consider exploring ChatGPT Courses to build a clearer picture of what the technology actually does, or learn Prompt Engineering Courses to use AI more effectively when it genuinely serves your work.
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