With AI being so accessible, there has definitely been a shift to regular people thinking “I can do this” and it has gotten to the point where some people are questioning professional opinion, in fact they are AI Experts (just kidding).
Now, I’m not saying just because you are a professional means that you know how to do absolutely everything (there’s always room to grow) but some level of trust needs to be established.
When you go to the dentist, you trust that the dental hygienists and dentists will take care of your needs. Do you run their job through ChatGPT ahead of time and ask them questions in the chair? One or two out of curiosity is likely fine, but anything more can feel offensive and off-putting.
What I’ve noticed is that if your job is online, it is criticized much more by people using AI prompts.
“Hey, I’m just checking that this was set up correctly…” or “well Gemini said that you could do this for me if you do X, Y, and Z.”
It is good to check. But when they are reassured that yes, it is all good, and then they come back with “well I ran it through ChatGPT and it is saying it isn’t so…” then that’s rough. Right there, you now have to shift to proving you can do your job which takes more time. I have nothing to hide, but I have heard from others that this unexpected caveat of working online takes so much extra time.
These prompts don’t tell the AI the full story so it responds in a way that is partial and incomplete.
These people mean well. They are paying for a service and want to make sure it is done right. So, they use their available tools to try and feel reassured. That’s ok. But when did it become ok to hyper focus on web services in this way, and not other professions?
I think it comes down to the fact that you are less likely to be face to face in this field of work. When you buy a muffin at the bakery, do you ask that proper food safe procedures were made before you buy it? Probably not. I mean, you trust they are clean enough for your standards, otherwise you wouldn’t have chosen them out of all the other bakeries.
There is also another problem with this AI double-checking feature: it is often wrong or misleading.
Sometimes when I am troubleshooting some code or getting Claude’s help with scheduling, I find mistakes. When I point them out, the AI says “oh right, good catch! I’ll update it now.” Think of this, with AI connected to the internet, I’ve still had instances where it didn’t know what day it was today. It would respond something like, “Today is June 3, so you can expect…” when really, it was already June 6. When corrected, it apologized and rephrased.
It takes a professional’s eye to see mistakes that the average person isn’t aware of.
When you hire a professional or use their services or purchase products, you are putting a level of trust in that. I mean, do you ask to see the bus driver’s license every time you hop on the bus? Absolutely not! We have to draw the line somewhere. I feel with AI, there’s more of a grey area than ever before and it can cause some unnecessary headaches.
Have you come across an AI expert in your field? How did you manage it? Let us know, we may feature your contribution in an upcoming blog post. And please, don’t ask to see the bus driver’s license!
