We’re in the middle of an interface shift, one that’s changing how work happens across product, marketing, design, and strategy.
The AI wave isn’t a future event. It’s already reshaping how high-performing teams think, write, research, and build. And if you’re not building AI fluency into your workflow, you’re not just missing a productivity boost, you’re missing the new default.
Why AI fluency matters (especially if you work in product or design)
If you’re building modern software, especially if your product is even remotely “AI-native”, you need to have taste. Not just in visuals or copy, but in how good AI experiences should feel.
And taste only comes from usage.
You need to know what good outputs look like. You need to feel the edge cases. You need to understand when the AI gets it right, and when it hallucinates in a way that could burn your credibility. You can’t outsource that to someone else.
Whether you’re a PM, designer, or strategy lead, AI is no longer optional. It’s a toolset and a mindset.
Three mindsets for working with AI well
After helping thousands of people use Chronicle (and plenty of AI tools internally), here are the three best ways we’ve seen AI used by great operators:
AI as your co-pilot
Let it handle the first pass. Summaries, rough copy, slide starters, skeletons; let AI do the 80%. But stay in control. You edit. You direct. You decide what’s good.
AI as your always-on writing partner
Use it to critique your own writing, explore alternate phrasings, or sharpen your tone. Chronicle’s Rewrite feature is used constantly by founders, PMs, and marketing leads to make slide content clearer, tighter, and more persuasive.
AI as your sidekick for learning
Curious about something? Don’t wait for a course. Open a chatbot. Ask it to explain, simplify, challenge you. The best builders we know are constantly asking questions and pressure-testing their thinking with AI.
Where AI works brilliantly
These are areas where AI is becoming a true multiplier:
- Summarization: distilling long text into takeaways
- Rapid drafting: generating first-pass content fast
- Slide creation: turning notes into structured decks
- Data storytelling: translating insights into visuals
- Q&A: answering strategic or technical questions on the fly
Where you still need to be sharp
AI is powerful but it’s not perfect. Here’s where humans must stay in the loop:
- Numerical reasoning: Always double-check numbers, math, and metrics
- Framing and nuance: AI will say “yes” to anything unless you direct it otherwise
- Bias and tone: It reflects the prompt. Ask a leading question, get a leading answer
- Decision-making: AI can suggest, but you’re still the one accountable
The prompting rule: it’s not magic, it’s communication
Prompting well isn’t about secret keywords. It’s about clarity and context.
- Be specific. Tell it exactly what you want (e.g. “Summarize this for a CFO in 3 bullets”)
- Provide context. What would your colleague need to know to help? That’s what the model needs too.
Tools we like
At Chronicle, we use a mix of tools depending on the job:
- ChatGPT + Claude for writing, brainstorming, and refinin
- Midjourney + Cosmos for moodboarding, and art direction
- Perplexity for research and citations
- Cursor for engineering
- Chronicle (yes, of course) for turning messy notes into clear presentations
You can’t build AI-native products with AI-illiterate teams
Here’s the thing: you can’t build smart products unless your team knows how to use the tools themselves. Taste, intuition, and judgment come from experience.
If your deck, doc, or story is AI-generated but you’ve never used it firsthand, it shows. If you want to lead — you need to be in the loop, not on autopilot.
Final thought: AI isn’t replacing you, but it’s upgrading the people who use it well
AI won’t replace you. But the person who uses it better? They might.
So start small. Ask it to help summarize your next meeting. Rewrite your next slide. Dig deeper on a product insight. Use Chronicle to generate your next deck from a messy Notion doc.
Build the habit. The future will expect it.
Start creating now
Want to see how Chronicle fits into your AI workflow?