Are You Trying to Automate Everything with AI? Here’s Why You Should Stop.

(When Smart Work & AI Automation Turn Against You.)

People are rushing to automate everything with AI.

“Work smart, not hard!” they say.

My LinkedIn feed is full of hooks like:

“Are you still working hard?”

“Want to know how to work smart?”

“Look how I create a post in 1 minute!”

People pay attention to such posts because they look for:

↳ hacks

↳ secrets

↳ shortcuts

↳ cheat codes

They want tricks to:

↳ avoid the hard work

↳ skip the necessary learning

↳ achieve big goals quick and easy

People believe AI can magically enable that.

So they start automating tasks they barely understand. They believe they found their shortcuts, their cheat codes. They finally know how to work smart!

But here’s the problem…

You can’t automate something you haven’t done yourself.

Why?

Because it leads to terrible results:

• Emails clearly written by ChatGPT.
• Low-quality content created by LLMs.
• Comments clearly generated by AI tools.

Automating tasks without deep understanding doesn’t make people look smart. It makes them look stupid.

Look, I’m an AI Engineer. Building AI tools and automation pays my bills.

I’m not here to tell you “Stop using AI!” or “AI is evil!”

Instead, I want to explain:

• What NOT to automate.
• How to use AI strategically.
• Why hard work and learning will never go away (no matter how super-intelligent AI will get).
• When working “smart” makes people actually look stupid.

Let’s dive in!

The Misconception of Smart Work.

“Hard work is overrated.”

“Smart work is everything.”

We’ve heard it for years. But with the improvements in AI, this trend exploded in the past 12–18 months.

We feel pressure and obligation to work smart. At least I do.

Working smart should be a goal, but “Work smart, not hard” is oversimplified.

And one of my role models backs me up:

“‘Work smart, not hard’ may be good advice for someone who already made it, but it’s bad otherwise.” Sahil Bloom

In the AI era, people want big things in no time or effort. People always wanted that.

But the world has never worked this way…

These things have always been hard:

✔ Achieving big goals.

✔ Finishing difficult tasks.

✔ Learning complex topics…

Many people wrongly believe AI has changed this principle.

Additionally, there’s a lot of social pressure promoting this trend.

I see a lot of that on LinkedIn & YouTube:

“Check out how I automated my life with AI!”

“Stop wasting your time and use my AI systems!”

“1000 personalized emails in less than 10 minutes!”

When I see the hooks, I feel I’m wasting my time.

I feel I should be working “smarter”.

I want great results quick and easy.

I want the shortcuts, hacks, tricks… I want it all!

But these shortcuts lead to terrible results!

The Hidden Danger of Smart Work.

“Everyone wants to automate things they’ve never done before. You can’t automate something that you haven’t done. Even if someone tells you how, you don’t understand it.” Nicolas Cole 🚢👻

This quote is from Ali Abdaal 's podcast.

In the podcast, Ali said that he gets many emails that are “clearly generated by ChatGPT”.

I haven’t seen those emails, but I guess they look like this:

For most people, that email looks OK.

But for people who learned how to write well, the email is obviously AI-generated (after 3 seconds of reading).

Bad emails are just 1 example. But it also applies to:

↳ AI-generated articles

↳ AI-generated comments

↳AI-generated social media posts

People save time. True.

But they lose much more:

→ They lose trust.

→ They lose credibility.

→ They sound like a robot.

→ Their lack of competence is obvious.

→ Other people know, it’s not their work.

Instead of working hard, they actually look stupid.

Why are their AI results so terrible?

Because they avoided the hard work:

• They skipped learning so they don’t understand what good writing looks like.
• They never practiced writing, so they didn’t have their own style or voice.
• They lack writing expertise, so they can’t evaluate AI outputs.
• They don’t know how to edit or improve AI outputs.

So what’s the solution?

Solution 1: Embrace Learning and Hard Work.

Let me bring more wisdom for Sahil:

“Principle: Work hard first, and smart later. It’s in vogue to say that working smart is all that matters. I disagree. If you want to accomplish anything, you have to start by working hard. Build a reputation for hard work — take pride in it. Then build leverage to work smart.” - Sahil Bloom

Why is it so important to do the hard work yourself? Let’s hear from Nicolas Cole too:

“But after you do that (hard work) you are significantly more educated about the process: 1. How to do it well. 2. What are the mistakes. 3. What drives the outcome. That then allows you to leverage tech…” - Nicolas Cole

They both emphasize the same message:

The only way to build leverage (through tech & AI) is to work hard first.

You don’t build leverage by working smart from Day 1. You don’t simply get leverage. You must earn leverage.

So I tweaked the “Work smart, not hard” mantra and ended up with: “Work smart ONLY IF you’ve already worked hard.”

But how do you build leverage first?

Before you jump into AI, go through the 4 crucial steps:

1. Start with manual processes. Hands-on experience is priceless. So write those emails, create that content from scratch, and do whatever you have to do. But do it yourself first. It will pay off forever.
2. Understand the entire process. Break down complex tasks into smaller parts. Learn how each piece fits together and adds up to the whole.
3. Develop expertise. Invest time to become an expert in your field. Keep working in a loop: Learn -> Create -> Seek feedback.
4. Make mistakes and learn from them. People want to avoid failure and errors. But here’s one of my favorite quotes ever:

“We can be truly successful only at something we’re willing to fail at. If we’re unwilling to fail, then we’re unwilling to succeed.” Mark Manson

Successful people who’ve never failed don’t exist!

And AI will NOT change this principle.

By working hard upfront, you gain:

• A deep understanding of your field.
• Credibility and expertise that set you apart.
• The flexibility to adapt as AI technology evolves.
• You gain the ability to critically evaluate AI outputs.

Then, and only then, you are ready to automate.

Let me give you the AI-related quote that resonates the most with me:

“It’s not Human vs. AI. It’s Human to the power of AI.” - Dharmesh Shah

In short… If the human part s*cks, the AI outputs also s*uck!

Look, I’ve spent over 20 hours writing this article.

It’s one of the most challenging articles I’ve ever written.

But I know it’s full of:

• My own beliefs.
• My own opinions.
• My own experience.
• My own writing style.

…and the hundreds of hours of learning how to write.

Note: And I’m not afraid of any AI detectors… I can even save time for people who want to test my writing:

But the “smart” AI gurus would tell me, “Dude, why did you waste 20 hours on writing? Why did you waste 100s of hours on learning? AI can write it in seconds!”

And they’re right. AI can write…

…but the quality of that writing is terrible:

Remember! These are your biggest assets:

✔ creativity

✔ unique experience

✔ deep understanding

And AI will NOT change it!

Does it mean you shouldn’t use AI unless you’re an expert?

You should, but here’s how…

Solution 2: Use AI Strategically.

Another huge misconception is that AI will replace humans.

AI is just a tool.

A powerful one, but still a tool.

So think of it as a human extension (not a replacement).

Use AI as your:

✔ tutor

✔ helper

✔ partner

✔ assistant

✔ amplifier

✔ enhancement

✔ personal coach

But here’s the good news: AI can help you become an expert much faster.

Here are 4 ways of using AI as an assistant or an expert (this list can get much longer!):

1. Use AI to learn. I love using AI as my personal tutor (especially for complex topics).

One of my most used prompts is “Explain topic X to a 12yo. Use examples and analogies.”

But AI for learning can also:

• Create a learning path tailored for you.
• Quiz you from your knowledge.
• Provide the best resources.
• Simplify complex topics.
• Create ANKI cards.

You can get creative here.

Speaking of which…

2. Use AI to boost creativity. People believe AI kills creativity… And they’re wrong!

My wife is an Illustrator & Graphic Designer.

She uses AI all the time (DALL-e, MidJourney, Canva).

She runs many “tests” with AI, such as:

• Blending various styles.
• Creating surprising objects.
• Combining unrelated things.

Do you think it’s bad for my wife’s creativity?

3. Use AI to brainstorm. Know that feeling when you’re stuck and don’t know what to do next?

✔ Use AI to “unstuck”.

✔ Use AI to move forward.

✔ Use AI to validate your ideas.

Just talk to it as it was another human being.

Explain your thoughts, struggles, ideas…

4. Use AI to find ideas. AI is an Idea Generation Machine!

Need an idea for:

• a project?
• an article?
• a social media post?

Use AI to find the ideas.

Conclusion

I’m a big believer in AI Automation.

But again… Don’t automate things you’ve never done before.

Because your knowledge is the foundation for AI outputs.

You can’t skip learning and believe you’re working smart. Not learning (by definition) leads to the opposite of smart.

Work hard. Keep learning. Then work smart.

Earn your leverage.