Three things I let AI help with (and three I never will)
Google put out some guidance for small businesses recently about showing up in AI search results. One line stuck with me: AI rewards real, first-hand experience over generic advice that anyone could write.
I think that's true of a lot more than search results. So here's an honest one, from me, about where AI actually earns its place in how I run Silver Lining Social, and where it has absolutely no business being.
Where I let it help
Brainstorming and priority order. When I've got a head full of ideas for a client, a campaign or a new offer, I'll often talk it out or type it out roughly, then use AI to help me sort the mess into something with an actual order to it. It's not coming up with the ideas. It's helping me see which ones matter first.
The admin side. I use Asana to run this business, and like most small business owners, my actual brain doesn't organise itself into neat tasks and deadlines. I'll do a proper brain dump of everything that needs doing, then use AI to help turn that into structured tasks with priorities and dates attached. It's admin, not strategy, and it saves me a genuinely stupid amount of time.
Research. Keeping an eye on what's happening in my industry, finding good sources, checking what a platform's actually changed this month rather than relying on a headline. AI is fast at pulling that together. I'm still the one deciding what's worth acting on, and I always check the source, if I can't see where a piece of information's actually coming from, I don't use it. That's what keeps it accurate rather than just plausible sounding.
Where it doesn't get anywhere near my business
Actual client strategy. This is the part people are paying me for. My judgement, built from years of doing this, of knowing a wellness brand isn't the same as a creative one, of knowing when a client needs to be told something they don't want to hear. That's not something I'd ever hand over, and honestly, if I did, I wouldn't be doing my job properly.
My own voice on my personal posts. This one matters more to me than people probably realise. When I'm writing about my own experience, running this business, the messy bits, the wins, the days that go sideways, that has to be genuinely mine. TWord count: 731he moment my personal LinkedIn starts sounding like it was generated rather than lived, I've lost the thing that makes people actually want to read it.
Anything to do with sensitive data. My finances aren't going anywhere near an AI tool. Not my bank details, not client invoices, not anything that would cause a real problem if it ended up somewhere it shouldn't. Some things are worth the extra ten minutes of doing manually.
AI-generated graphics and posters. You've probably seen the trend, those AI poster grids and character illustrations doing the rounds on LinkedIn. I don't use them. It feels like it takes work away from the graphic designers and content creators who actually do that properly, and I'd rather pay someone for real skill than generate something that only looks like it.
Why the line matters
I think the businesses getting this wrong tend to fall into one of two camps. Either they're scared of AI altogether and missing out on genuinely useful time savings, or they've handed over the parts that actually needed a human and ended up sounding like everyone else in their industry.
Meta’s also started labelling AI-generated content across Facebook and Instagram. If platforms are going to flag what’s AI and what isn’t anyway, being upfront about it yourself, where it’s used and where it isn’t, is just getting ahead of that rather than being caught out by it.
For a therapist, that might mean using AI to help organise a backlog of client resources, but never to write the actual words that go in a session. For a photographer, it might mean using it to sort through a shoot's worth of notes into a proper shot list, but never to write the caption that's supposed to sound like her.
Useful tools should make your work clearer. They shouldn't be anywhere near the parts that need an actual judgement call, and they definitely shouldn't be the reason your business starts sounding like everyone else's.
Where do you draw your own line?
I'd genuinely like to know. If you're running a small business and you've worked out your own version of this list, the tasks you're happy to hand over and the ones you'd never touch with AI, reply and tell me. It's exactly the kind of thing worth comparing notes on.
If you want a hand working out where AI could actually save you time without losing what makes your business sound like you, a Social Brew Call is a good place to start. Book a Social Brew Call.
