LANDMARK · 5 MIN · USE
Choosing a tool
After this landmark, you can evaluate an AI tool against the actual task and its risks rather than against how impressive its demo felt.
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This concept is shared, but the Everyday lens is less central here.
You can still explore it. We’re showing the shared explanation and a related practical view without hiding the knowledge.
A demo is designed to impress in five minutes; your task has to hold up over months. Those are different tests, and the flashy one is easy to mistake for the useful one. To choose well, start from the work: what does the task actually require, and what happens when the tool is wrong? Then ask the questions a demo won’t answer — what the tool does with your data, whether it fits the real workflow rather than a staged one, and what evidence exists beyond the sizzle reel. Often the honest answer is a simpler tool, or no AI at all.
This is the canonical concept. It stays the same across learner lenses so personalization never changes the underlying facts.
◌ EVERYDAY LENS
What this looks like for you
Before adopting a new AI app, ask what it wants from you — your files, your contacts, your data — and whether it fits how you already work. A tool you have to reshape your whole routine around usually isn’t saving you time.
MAKE A DECISION
A vendor’s AI tool gave a stunning demo and your team is keen to buy. Before committing, what’s the most useful next step?
CARRY THISPick a tool you’re considering and write down three things before adopting it: what it does with your data, whether it fits your real workflow, and what the simplest non-AI alternative is.