Give AI a job. Keep the judgment.

Give your assistant a brief, not a wish

“Write me a proposal” leaves AI to invent the context. A better brief includes the buyer, the problem, the evidence you actually have, the intended deliverable, and the boundaries. Ask for questions before a draft. A useful collaborator exposes missing information instead of silently filling it in.

Use AI in defined stages. First ask it to organize approved information. Next ask it to identify ambiguities and suggest options. Then choose the direction yourself. Only after those decisions should you ask for a draft, outline, or implementation plan.

A five-step client workflow

1. Understand: summarize the approved brief. Separate facts, assumptions, and unanswered questions.
2. Plan: compare two possible approaches against the client's constraints. Decide which you can deliver and test.
3. Produce: draft in small sections. Supply examples of the required voice, format, and quality.
4. Verify: check facts against original sources, test code and links, and review accessibility and usage rights.
5. Deliver: explain what changed, what was checked, what remains uncertain, and what the client must approve.

The human review is part of the deliverable

AI can produce fluent mistakes. A polished answer may cite a source that does not exist, misunderstand a spreadsheet column, or generate code with a security flaw. Asking another model to approve the output is not independent verification. Check it against the original material and the actual acceptance criteria.

For research work, maintain a source table with URLs, access dates, and which claims each source supports. For automation work, run synthetic records through success, failure, duplicate, and missing-data paths. For copy, verify each factual or numerical claim and remove invented testimonials.

Protect the information you were trusted with

Agree on permitted tools and data before you use client materials. A consumer chat subscription is not automatically an approved environment for a client's confidential work. Review the specific provider settings, contract requirements, retention terms, and any applicable restrictions. Minimize data, redact identifying details, and use synthetic examples for testing.

Try: “Using only the material below, list facts, assumptions, and questions. Do not add statistics or customer claims. Identify anything that requires human verification. Wait for my choices before drafting.”

Describe your process clearly

Discuss AI use before work begins, especially where it changes confidentiality, licensing, authorship, or client expectations. Explain which stages use AI and which checks you perform. If you bill hourly, record actual work time under the contract; efficiency does not justify inventing hours. If you use a fixed fee, define the scope and acceptance criteria clearly.