Short weekly notes on what I’m learning, trying, questioning, and using as I figure out how to use AI in real work
I Thought I Was Keeping Up With AI. I Wasn’t.
Week 1—May 5, 2026
This is the first in a weekly series about how I’m using AI, what I’m learning, people I’m learning from, questions I have, and where I’m going next with AI.
I’ve been floating around Every.to for a few weeks now, reading their free newsletters and articles but blocked by the paywall. Was it worth it?
Should I give this company my hard-earned Canadian dollars?
As I dithered over the paid subscription, I became addicted to reading Katie’s Every articles. I follow her on LinkedIn. I sent her a connection request. Ignored—I get it, she’s very busy these days. Subscribed to her Substack.
And then I saw the Writing Camp. I really, really wish I had known about this sooner. Of course I tried to watch it—nope, subscribers only.
But still, I sat on signing up. Surely I could keep up and learn what I needed about AI on my own. And as for an AI writing tool? Yeah, no. Hard stop.
I’ve got a writing tool: my big brain, 10 fingers, Microsoft Word/Google Docs, and a keyboard. I don’t need a tool taking over my words and sentences. I don’t want edits while I’m writing. I’m a professional writer after all.
A writer’s gotta write. It should be hard and slow sometimes. Right? Isn’t that the ethos of being a writer?
And then I started seeing posts about Claude Skills, content engineering, marketing engineering, and I reread Writing With AI is Harder Than You Think, How To Build an AI Style Guide, and AI Phobia Is Just Fear that ‘Easier’ Equals ‘Cheating’.
A switch flipped. I need to catch up. I’ve been using ChatGPT for a while now, I’m a proud owner of a paid account and I’m pretty good at prompting.
But I needed to be honest with myself and finally admit that what I’m doing isn’t enough anymore.
My husband likes to talk about the five levels of AI, and I was firmly stuck in level 1.5. I recently started using Gemini Gems with one of my clients to “automate” a lot of the heavy lifting that goes into writing and to handle the time-consuming, nit-picky work that always takes longer than I expect.
But this only gets me maybe to level 2. Not good enough.
I need to know more. What are Claude Skills and how should I be using them? What is the difference between a ChatGPT Project and a Custom GPT (I asked ChatGPT—they don’t really seem to know either)?
How can I stay relevant in my marketing and content writing role?
It comes down to being scared of being left behind. I like words. I’m lucky to make my living off of them. And I don’t want to be pushed to the curb because I haven’t kept up.
So this is why I spent $390 on an Every subscription and why I’m giving up my free time to learn as much as I can.
I know it’s not going to be easy. I’m going to have to keep my brain—and my mind—open.
I’ll need to accept that there are better ways than what I’ve been doing. I’ll need to admit when I don’t understand.
I’m prepared to fail.
I plan to write weekly about how all this is going. Follow along for the honest account of what it’s like to be a 54-year-old writer trying to catch up and stay on top of all things AI.
Hopefully, my experiences will nudge you toward taking the AI leap—or point you toward new tools, people, and processes that can help you do your job better.
Today I started the Airops Content Engineering Cohort and I watched the Every Writing Camp replay. In short: mind blown. And I’m feeling like I can get this. I can do this. We can do this.