2025, AI, and me

This blog is more than 20 years old. I don’t post here much anymore, but I don’t want it to fade away. It has been more than a blog for me – it’s a space to express myself, refine my thoughts, and to experiment. It is also a place where I meet my younger selves. Unlike other platforms, this is a place I control. I’m the boss here 🙂

Since 2005, I’ve written at least one post every year – except for that one exceptional year of 2020. I almost broke that streak again in this year, until I noticed today that my last post was from September 2024.

A lot has happened this year – for the world and for me. Professionally, my life has taken a new turn, and I hope it’s for the better. It feels like one more step toward what I truly want to do. If things go well, I should get there by the time I retire.

The world is also being reshaped by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. In 2024, many of us were still trying to understand AI and were skeptical about it. In 2025, the game changed. AI still isn’t “fully there” for me, but the pace of improvement has been incredibly encouraging.

I don’t feel threatened by AI – I feel empowered. I think we’re entering an age of ideas. For a long time, good ideas often stayed stuck because turning them into reality required time, money, and effort – things not everyone has. This shift is redefining the rules and making it far easier to turn ideas into real products.

But I also see a real risk: AI can reduce people’s ability to think for themselves. AI is great at remixing what it has seen online, but it’s still not great at producing truly original thinking. The people who don’t outsource their thinking will be the ones who stand strong once the initial fog clears, and AI transforms into a nourishing, rain-bearing cloud – one that can also wash away a lot in the floods it results in.

The temptation to let AI do the hard thinking is huge. But it’s important to resist that. My approach is simple – I use AI for things I’m not great at, and I stay deeply involved in the areas where my strengths matter.

AI shouldn’t make me lazy. It should make me more productive – help me do things that, even a couple of years ago, I didn’t think I could do.

For example, I won’t use AI to generate ideas or write posts for this blog. But I will use it to copy-edit what I write, and maybe to create a supporting graphic (like the one accompanying this post).

A lot of my work (and personal projects) involves quickly finding tools that solve very specific problems. For years, ever since I first got online, I used to search the web for the right tool – often without success. Now, I build my own customised tools instead. With help from AI, a few rounds of refinement and debugging later, I often have something that does exactly what I need. I’ve created many small tools that I now use daily – and that help my colleagues use their time better too.

Because of my professional role, I’m right in the middle of the AI wave. But I also try to step back and ask – what does this mean for me personally, and how can I make the best use of it – beyond what I’m doing for the organisation I work for?