Author’s Note
Written in October 2025.
AI is evolving faster than any technology we’ve seen. By the time you read this, some of what I describe may already be outdated — and that’s part of the story. This series isn’t about the tools. It’s about awareness, adaptation, and what it means to stay human in a world that keeps changing.*
Article 3 of the “Adapting in the Age of AI” series.
If you’ve followed the first two articles, you know where we are.
The wave has already hit — AI isn’t coming; it’s here.
Now the question isn’t “Will AI replace us?”
It’s “How do we work alongside it — and still stay valuable?”
For me, the answer came through a series of experiments.
The First Shift — From Curiosity to Action
I didn’t start with a plan.
I started with curiosity.
When ChatGPT came out, I asked it to write emails. Then blog outlines. Then menus for my restaurant.
Each time, I learned what it could do — and more importantly, what it couldn’t.
Then one day, I stopped asking if AI could help and started asking how to make it work like me.
That’s when things started to click.
Building My Own Tools
Here’s what that looked like:
- Prompt Engineering: Learning how to talk to AI clearly. Not just typing, but designing conversations with intent.
- Custom GPTs: Creating specialized assistants — one for golf instruction, one for recipe writing, one for customer service.
- Social Media Reply AI: Automating replies while still sounding human. It didn’t just save time — it improved tone and consistency.
- AI Visibility Tracking: Testing how often my golf club appeared in AI-driven searches. (This one taught me that AI SEO is the next frontier.)
- Sugarbush Chatbot: Building a bot that answers tee time questions and keeps customers engaged after hours.
Each project started as a small step.
Each one replaced something I used to do manually.
And each one taught me more about how to think through AI instead of just about AI.
The Framework: Awareness → Experiment → Build → Integrate
If I had to distill my process into a blueprint, it would look like this:
- Awareness: Notice where your time and energy go.
- Experiment: Try one small thing AI might improve.
- Build: Customize it to fit your workflow and voice.
- Integrate: Let it run — then move on to the next piece.
You don’t have to automate everything.
Start with the repetitive stuff.
Let AI handle the routine so you can focus on the creative.
Still Searching, Still Building
Even now, I’m still looking for new ways to use AI in my everyday routines.
How can it help me plan the week better?
Analyze swing data faster?
Or even track restaurant prep schedules more smoothly?
Each question becomes another experiment.
And every small success builds on the last.
That’s also what I tell my kids.
Just like the line from Field of Dreams — “If you build it, they will come.”
But I like to add one more: “If you can dream it, you can build it.”
That’s what AI makes possible.
It turns imagination into design, and design into action.
Awareness in Motion
If Post 1 was about facing the truth and Post 2 was about shifting mindset,
then this one is about taking ownership.
You don’t need to be ahead of everyone.
You just need to move.
Awareness turns into growth the moment you act.
好運 (good luck) is a skill you can learn.
And now, so is adaptation.