Julie Yack

I work in an AI-powered world.
I use AI every day — to write, to build, to learn, to brainstorm, to teach.
And because I use it so much, I’ve learned one very important thing:

AI knows a lot.
But it doesn’t know what you know.

And sometimes… it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know, either.

I realized this the day an AI tool confidently informed me — in my own professional bio — that I have a pet camel.

A pet camel.

Let me be clear:
I do not have a pet camel.
I have never had a pet camel.
Not even a loaner camel or a camel adjacent situation.
But the AI delivered that detail with total certainty, as if I’d been hiding a small desert ranch in the rural Colorado mountains.

And here’s the part that should make you feel better about using AI:

AI didn’t even blink.
AI never wonders if it might be wrong.
AI never thinks, “Hmm, this feels off… Julie doesn’t seem like a camel person.”

AI has zero imposter syndrome.

Honestly? Sometimes it probably should.

Because being wrong with that much confidence is a very specific talent — one that can only exist when you don’t have a sense of your own limitations.

Humans, on the other hand, are experts at knowing our limitations.
We doubt ourselves even when we’re right.
We question our experience.
We replay every meeting in our heads wondering how we sounded.

And yet — when it comes to using AI — that human doubt is not a weakness.
It’s the built-in guardrail that AI doesn’t have.

That tiny voice that says, “Wait, why is there a camel here?”
That’s the part that keeps things from going off the rails.

So yes, AI is powerful.
But you are powerful, too.

AI is powerful because of what it knows.
You are powerful because of what you know.
Great results happen when both of you show up —
you with your judgment,
and AI with its speed… and its occasional imaginary livestock.

And here’s the part I want you to hear clearly, especially if you’re still finding your footing with AI:

It’s still absolutely okay to use AI.
It’s more than okay — it’s necessary.

Just don’t use it alone.

AI can write the first draft. Or review your draft.
AI can build the first version of the app. Or edit your formulas to be more efficient.
AI can take the first swing at the data model. Or do the work for you in a fraction of the time.

But you bring the context, the nuance, the “this has never worked in the real world” wisdom.
You bring the humanity and the judgment and the lived experience AI can’t have.

You bring the part that knows camels do not belong in your résumé.

So keep using AI.
Use it confidently.
Use it creatively.
Use it to accelerate your work.

Just don’t let it work unsupervised.
It doesn’t have imposter syndrome — but it definitely hasn’t earned that level of confidence.