Hi there,

This week’s Dispatch is a personal one. It’s about how I’ve changed the way I work — and how AI is now at the heart of everything I do. Not as a tool, but as a thinking partner. I hope it inspires you to rethink how you work too.

— Alan

AI First: The Solopreneur’s New Mindset

Forget what you think you know.

Working with AI requires a whole new mindset — and it starts by treating it like a teammate, not a tool.

Ten years ago, Luke Wroblewski said we should design for mobile first. Not because mobile was better — but because it forced us to unlearn old habits. Strip away the fluff. Start from constraints. And in doing so, we built better things — for everyone.

Today, I believe we need a new kind of unlearning. This time, it’s not about screen size. It’s about mindset. We need to go AI First.

Most people are still using AI like a glorified tool: a smarter search engine, a faster notepad, a better Excel. But that’s like using a Ferrari to drive down the driveway.

AI isn’t just a tool. It’s a thinking partner. A strategist. A sparring partner. A team member. Someone I work with, not just something I work on.

But here’s the shift: to work this way, you have to forget everything you think you know.

Forget your polished process.

Forget the need to arrive with answers.

Instead: show up with the problem.

That’s been my biggest shift. I used to give AI a wall of content and ask for a polished output. Now? I bring it the question. I share the tension I’m feeling, the gap I’ve spotted, the challenge my client has. And then I say:

“Let’s figure this out.”

When you work AI First, you start with possibility, not process.

With curiosity, not control.

And most of all, you open the door to a kind of collaboration that multiplies you — not just assists you.

That’s how I work now. Everything I do, I involve AI. Not because I need to. But because I’d be foolish not to.

The people who win with AI won't be the ones who master every tool.

They’ll be the ones who master how to think with it.

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