Martin was supposed to be the smart one. MBA from Wharton, ten years in consulting, a reputation for solving complex problems. But as he sat in the conference room, watching his junior analyst Lisa present her market analysis, he felt something he rarely experienced: inadequacy.
Lisa's presentation was brilliant. The insights were sharp, the data visualizations compelling, the strategic recommendations spot-on. When the CEO asked how long the analysis took, Martin expected to hear "two weeks."
"About three hours," Lisa said casually. "I used ChatGPT."
Martin had been using ChatGPT for months. His outputs looked nothing like this. While he was getting generic summaries and obvious insights, Lisa was producing partner-level strategic analysis. The tool was the same. The results couldn't have been more different.
After the meeting, Martin swallowed his pride, and asked Lisa for her secret.
"Let me guess," Lisa said with a knowing smile. "You're making at least three of the five deadly mistakes everyone makes with AI."
She was right. He was making all five.