My kids will never know a world without AI, and I think about that a lot. 

They’ll grow up seeing AI the way my generation treated the internet when it first showed up, except we were kids when the internet arrived and it felt like the most exciting thing in the world.

There was no resistance, no overthinking, just pure curiosity and this feeling that we couldn't wait to figure out what it could do.

AI feels different for us now because we're not kids anymore, we're business owners and creatives and writers who already built systems and careers and entire ways of working before this technology existed. 

And when something new comes along that challenges all of that, the first reaction isn't always excitement.  It's hesitation and, sometimes, fear, and I think that's because adapting as an adult with a business to run feels very different from adapting as a kid with nothing to lose. 

That's actually the more interesting conversation. Not whether AI is coming for our jobs, but whether we're willing to let go of the way we've always done things long enough to see how it can help (highlighting the word HELP, because I truly believe, AI is a helper, not a replacement of what us, human beings really are and can do).

I use AI in my content and writing process. I'm not shy about saying that. But there's also a massive difference between using AI and depending on it, and that difference is what I want to talk about today.

The Resistance Is Real (And I Get It)

When AI tools first started becoming part of the conversation in the creative space, I'll be honest, I didn't love it. It felt overwhelming and intrusive. 

A lot of writers felt the same way. There was this immediate reaction of “so now a machine can do what I do?” and it felt personal. 

But writing is personal. For me, it's how I process the world, how I connect with people, how I make sense of things that don't always make sense, and I’ll go as far as saying, writing is how I share who I am to a world that could use some more humanity. The idea that a tool could just… generate that didn’t sit right with me.

I think that reaction was completely valid because writing isn't just about putting words on a page. It's about the experience behind those words, the emotion, the specific way you see something because of the life you've lived. 

AI doesn't have that. It never will. It can put together sentences that sound impressive, but it can't tell you what it felt like to grow up in Mexico and learn English in Australia and then try to build a career in America where you're constantly translating feelings between languages. That's mine. AI can't touch that.

I do know tho, that just because AI can't do the human part of writing doesn't mean it can't help with the other parts. The research, the structure, the brainstorming, the “I know I have something to say but I can't figure out how to organize it” part. And once I let go of the idea that using AI meant I was somehow less of a writer, my workflow specifically, changed.

 Why Our Generation Needs to Pay Attention

Something worth paying attention to is that according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 58% of small businesses are now using generative AI, up from 40% just a year ago, and HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing Report found that 94% of marketers plan to use AI in their content creation this year. That's not a trend, that's a shift.

Our kids don't need to “adopt” AI. They're growing up with it the same way we grew up with Google. Studies show that Gen Z students are already using AI weekly for learning and creativity, and their schools are building AI into the curriculum.

For them, this isn't a disruption. It's just… Tuesday.

For us, though, it's different.

We built our businesses, our writing processes, our creative systems without AI.

We learned to brainstorm with a notebook (I have a collection of them!), to research by reading ten articles and pulling out what mattered, to organize ideas by staring at a blank document until something clicked.

Those skills are still valuable, but I think the business owners who will thrive in the next five years will be the ones who figured out how to keep those skills and add AI into the process, not the ones who refused to evolve because it felt uncomfortable.

I'm not saying this to scare anyone. I'm saying it because we owe it to ourselves and to our businesses to be honest about where things are going.

Our kids won't need a blog post telling them how to use AI, but we might… and that's more than okay.

The fact that we have to choose to learn this, that it doesn't come naturally, that we have to push past the discomfort and the pride and the “but I've always done it this way” voice in our heads… that's what makes it meaningful.

Our kids will use AI because it's all they know. We'll use it because we decided to grow.

How I Actually Use AI (And Where I Draw the Line)

I want to be really specific here because the conversation around AI and writing gets vague fast (or very aggressive, I’m not here to offend anyone). 

People either say “I use AI for everything!” or “I would never use AI!” and the truth, for most of us, lives somewhere in the middle.

Here's how it actually works in my own process:

Brainstorming and Finding Angles

This is probably where AI helps me the most. 

I'll have an experience, a conversation with one of my boys, something I noticed while working, a thought that won't leave me alone, and I know there's something there, but I can't always see the angle right away. 

So I'll take that raw thought to AI and say something like, “Here's what happened. Here's what I'm thinking. How does this connect to small business owners who are trying to build something while managing everything else in life?”

And AI is surprisingly good at finding that bridge. It can take a personal moment and help me see how it connects to a broader lesson about running a business, about creativity, about showing up when things are messy. 

I don't always use what it gives me tho. Sometimes the suggestions are too generic or too obvious. But even when the answer isn't perfect, the process of asking the question usually shakes something loose in my own brain. It's like having a conversation with someone who asks good questions, even if their answers aren't always what you need.

Research and Organizing Ideas

When I'm working on a blog post, especially one that needs to be educational and specific, I spend a lot of time in the research phase (the amount of newsletters I read every day, is overwhelming sometimes). I read articles, I look at what's been written, I pay attention to the gaps. And AI has become a huge part of that.

I'll ask it to help me find what's been covered on a topic and, more importantly, what hasn't. I'll ask it to organize the ideas I've collected into a structure that makes sense. 

Here’s a fun fact about my brain: I can generate ideas all day long, but organizing them into something that flows seems to be where I get stuck the most. 

I'll have fifteen sticky notes and a voice memo and a half-written paragraph and no idea how they all fit together. AI helps me see the structure when I can't.

I think of it like building a house. AI helps me with the blueprint, the framing, the “this goes here and that goes there.” But I'm the one who decides what the house looks like, what color the walls are, how the rooms feel when you walk in. The structure supports the creativity. It doesn't replace it.

Drafting (And Then Rewriting Almost Everything)

This is the part people get the most confused about, so I want to be clear. Yes, I sometimes use AI to help me write a first draft. And no, that draft almost never sounds like me.

AI drafts are clean. They're organized. They're grammatically perfect. And that's exactly the problem. My writing isn't perfect, and I don't want it to be. I want it to sound like a real person who sometimes starts sentences with “And” or “But,” who uses ellipses when a thought trails off, who describes things in more words than necessary because that's how my brain works when it's translating a feeling from Spanish to English. AI doesn't do any of that.

So the first thing I do with an AI draft is rewrite the intro. Always. The intro is where my voice needs to show up immediately, where the reader needs to feel like they're hearing from a real human and not reading something generated. Then I go through paragraph by paragraph and ask myself: does this sound like something I would actually say? And if it doesn't, I change it until it does.

The rewriting is actually the most important part of the whole process. It's where the writing becomes mine. The AI gave me a starting point, a block of clay, and the rewriting is where I shape it into something that has my fingerprints all over it.

The Line I Won't Cross

I want to be honest about something: I would never publish an AI draft without rewriting it. And this is where the real conversation about AI and authenticity lives.

There are things AI simply cannot do. It can't tell your story. It can't describe the way something felt in a moment only you experienced. It can't capture the humor that comes from raising two boys who are always moving, always asking questions, always finding new ways to make you laugh when you're trying to be serious. It can't write with the kind of imperfection that makes people respond to a newsletter and say, “I needed to read this today.”

The writers and business owners who will struggle are the ones who start letting AI write for them instead of with them. Because your audience can tell the difference. Maybe not always in a specific word or phrase, but in the feeling. AI-generated content has a flatness to it, a sameness, that your audience will eventually feel even if they can't name it. And in a world where 94% of marketers are planning to use AI in their content, the thing that will set you apart is not the tool you use. It's the humanity you bring to it.

What I've Learned About Creativity and AI

Something unexpected happened when I started using AI in my process. I actually became a better writer. Not because AI taught me how to write, but because working with it forced me to get clearer about what my voice actually sounds like.

When you're reading an AI draft and you know it doesn't sound like you, you have to articulate why. You have to ask yourself, “What would I say instead? How would I open this? What detail would I add that a machine never could?” And that process of constantly comparing your voice to AI's voice sharpens your sense of self as a writer in a way I didn't expect.

It's also made me more productive in a way that serves my creativity instead of replacing it. The time I used to spend staring at a blank page trying to organize my thoughts… I now spend that time actually writing. The human, emotional, imperfect writing that only I can do. AI handles the scaffolding so I can focus on the parts that matter most.

A Practical Starting Point (If You're Still on the Fence)

If you're a business owner or a creative who's been on the fence about AI, I get it. And the best way to start is small. Here's what I'd suggest:

Start with brainstorming, not drafting.

Take a topic you've been wanting to write about and ask AI to help you find the angle, the structure, or the gaps in what's already been said. Let it be your thinking partner before you let it touch any actual writing.

Use AI for research.

 Ask it to summarize what's been written on a topic, to organize your scattered notes, to suggest a flow for your ideas. This is where AI saves you the most time with the least risk to your voice.

If you use it for drafting, commit to the rewrite.

Don't publish a first draft that AI wrote. Read it out loud (I do this with almost everything I write) and change every sentence that doesn't sound like you. The draft is the starting point, not the finish line.

Pay attention to what you keep versus what you change.

Over time, this will teach you more about your own voice than any writing course ever could. You'll start to see patterns in what feels like you and what doesn't, and that awareness is pure gold.

And most importantly, don't let AI make you lazy.

The whole point is that it frees up your time and energy for the work that actually requires you. If you're using it to avoid doing the hard, creative, human part of writing, you're using it wrong.

Why This Matters for Your Business

I think the small business owners in our community are some of the hardest-working, most resourceful people out there. You've built businesses from your living rooms, from kitchen tables, from late nights after the kids finally went to sleep. And the reason your businesses work is because people trust you. They trust your voice, your experience, your perspective. AI doesn't change that. If anything, it gives you more time to lean into it.

But the world is moving, and I think we have a choice. We can resist the change and spend our energy fighting something that isn't going away, or we can learn to use it in a way that makes us better at what we already do well. Our kids won't have to make that choice because they'll never know anything different. But we do. And I think that's actually a gift, because choosing to embrace something new when you don't have to? That takes courage. And courage is something every business owner I know already has plenty of.

So if you've been curious about AI but haven't taken the first step, consider this your permission slip. Not to hand your writing over to a machine, but to let a machine help you do more of the writing that only you can do.

Your voice is what makes your business yours. AI can't replicate that. But it can give you more space to use it.

Also, fun fact, I wrote this blog post using AI to help me research and organize my thoughts. And then I rewrote most of it because AI doesn't know what it's like to think in two languages at once… and honestly, that's the best part of my writing.