It’s been 30 years since I last touched coding.
Back then, the world moved slower. We wrote HTML like it was calligraphy, carefully lining up tags and hoping we didn’t forget a semicolon. I remember struggling with syntax, praying my pages would load, and feeling a mix of pride and relief when they finally did. In those days, building a page felt like carving something by hand. I never imagined I’d circle back to programming, especially not through artificial intelligence.
But here I am, decades later, having just built a custom GPT: a specialized assistant designed to answer HR-related questions. And not just answer them, but to do so thoughtfully with context, policy knowledge, and even control over tone. It works. It really works. And I’ll admit, I’m still a little astonished by that.
I didn’t get here because I suddenly became an AI expert. I got here because I’m curious. Because I believe leadership, like cooking or golf, is about building tools that help others thrive. In golf, the right drill unlocks confidence. In cooking, the right technique transforms simple ingredients. And in leadership, the right system can free people to focus on what matters most.
This GPT isn’t perfect. No tool is. But it listens. It responds. It takes routine tasks off the table so that real human conversations can happen with more space and more care. For someone who still writes blog posts about golf swings and bolognese, that’s pretty wild.
What I’ve learned is simple: improvement starts with awareness.
And today, awareness includes AI. It’s not about replacing people, it’s about amplifying what they can do.
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Would you like to see how the GPT works? I’ll be sharing more soon. In the meantime, if you have questions about building one or want to test it out, reach out.