Roadmap with Irina - August 2026

For quite a while, I have been trying not to use too much AI in my work. Well, I was trying to avoid it as much as I could. I know everyone is talking about how AI makes us more productive and changes the way we work. And I do use it a little, mostly for fun. (Oh, you should hear how my husband talks with Grok in Russian slang! It's hilarious!)  But somewhere inside me, there has been this resistance. I still want my writing to sound like me. I want my ideas to be mine. I don't want a computer to do all my thinking for me.

But lately, I have had to admit something: if I want to have more free time, I need to learn how to use AI better. There are only so many hours in a day, and I spend way too many of them writing emails, preparing marketing materials, creating social media posts, researching, organizing information, and doing dozens of other little things that come with running a business. If AI can help me do some of those things in 20 minutes instead of two hours, maybe refusing to learn it isn't such a noble idea after all.

While I was staying home nursing my injured ankle, I started taking AI classes. I felt a surprising amount of resistance every time I watched another tutorial or figured out another AI tool. Maybe I am lazy. Maybe I am getting too old to get excited about learning new technology. Or maybe my brain simply says, "We already know how to do our job. Why are you making us learn everything all over again?"

Recently, I watched a webinar about AI, and I found myself really admiring the woman who was teaching it. She was easygoing, energetic, funny, and clearly knew what she was talking about. She made everything look so natural and simple. Then, somewhere in the middle of the webinar, she casually mentioned that she has eight kids and had recently become a grandmother. Eight kids! And a grandbaby! And here she was, teaching me about AI. I immediately thought, "If she can do it, I can do it too!" What excuse do I have to fall behind? Apparently, somewhere along the way, I completely forgot my own motto: "Shut up and do it." So, follow your own directions, Irina. Stop making excuses and just do it!

Technology isn't going backwards. And if I can learn to use AI without losing my own voice, creativity, judgment, and personal connection with people, maybe it won't replace something valuable in my work. Hopefully, it will simply give me more time for the valuable things that AI cannot do for me.

I don't know yet how this will turn out. Maybe six months from now I will be much more efficient, have more free time, and become a brand-new technologically advanced (AI-generated) version of me. Or maybe I will still be sitting in front of my computer arguing with an AI program. Either way, there is no way back; I have to learn it.

My grandmother used to say, "Learn as long as you live, and you will die as a fool." It sounded funny when I was younger, but I understand it much better now. There will always be something new to learn. And since I am still alive, I guess I just need to keep learning. So, shut up and do it, Irina.