What AI Is Good (and Bad) At
Know AI's strengths and limitations so you can use it where it actually helps.
10 min readAI's Sweet Spots and Blind Spots
Understanding where AI excels and where it falls flat is the single most important skill for working with it effectively. Get this wrong and you'll either waste time on things AI can't do, or miss opportunities where it could save you hours.
Where AI Excels
Drafting and iteration: First drafts of emails, reports, proposals, documentation. AI won't write your best work, but it'll get you 70% of the way there in seconds. Summarisation: Got a 50-page report? A two-hour meeting transcript? AI can pull out the key points in seconds. Research and synthesis: Gathering information from multiple sources and combining it into a coherent overview. AI is brilliant at this. Data analysis: Spotting patterns in data, creating charts, explaining what numbers mean in plain language. Translation and reformatting: Converting content between formats, tones, audiences, or languages. Brainstorming: Generating ideas, alternatives, and angles you might not have considered.Where AI Struggles
Factual accuracy: AI can and will make things up. It doesn't "know" facts — it predicts what sounds right. Always verify. Nuanced judgment: Should we fire this vendor? Is this marketing campaign in good taste? AI can give you frameworks, but the judgment call is yours. Original creative vision: AI can remix and iterate, but true creative breakthroughs still come from humans. Understanding your specific context: AI doesn't know your company culture, your team dynamics, or the politics of your organisation. You have to provide that context. Real-time information: Most AI models have a knowledge cutoff. They don't know what happened yesterday unless you tell them.The 70/30 Rule
Think of AI as getting you 70% of the way there. Your job is the last 30% — the judgment, the context, the polish, the decision. That's where the human value lives.
Key Takeaways
- AI excels at drafting, summarising, research, data analysis, and brainstorming
- AI struggles with factual accuracy, nuanced judgment, and understanding your specific context
- Use the 70/30 rule: AI gets you 70% there, you add the judgment and context
- Always verify AI's factual claims — it predicts what sounds right, not what is right
Try This Now
Take something you wrote recently — an email, a report section, meeting notes — and paste it into an AI tool. Ask it to 'improve the clarity and conciseness of this text.' Compare the output to your original. Where did AI improve it? Where did it lose something important?