I have a confession to make: I started 2025 feeling paralyzed.
Throughout last year, the world couldn’t stop talking about the advent of Artificial Intelligence. New tools were emerging every single day. I would read the headlines and think, “AI is going to leave us all jobless.” It was hard to see things from any other perspective.
I am a psychologist working in Human Resources. My vocation is directly tied to people: understanding their motivations, helping them navigate conflicts, and nurturing company culture. How could a machine do any of that? What happens to empathy? What happens to the things that make us human?
Honestly, I didn’t see it as progress. I saw it as a threat of dehumanization.
But as much as I tried, I couldn’t swim against the current. I had to take a deep breath and dive in, despite my fear and heavy resistance.
The Fear of the New
Implementing AI at my company was a strategic goal set by leadership: this would be the year we all integrated AI into our workflows.
But for me, it felt like being told to learn a new language while everyone else was already fluent. I was lost on where to start. How could a psychologist find a place in a world of algorithms?
Fortunately, one of the leaders at my company, Leo, reached out. We looked at my daily tasks to see where AI could support me and where it couldn’t. He didn’t ask me to be a coder; he asked me to be a mentor to the machine.
Slowly, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I didn’t fall in love with the tech overnight, but at least I stopped seeing AI as a threat.
What I Learned
Little by little, my fear transformed into enthusiasm. I discovered that AI is a powerful engine, but it requires a human driver. Here is how my work actually changed:
- Mastering “Meta-Prompting”: I learned it’s not enough to just “ask for things” to an LLM. I realized that to improve my prompts, I had to dialogue with the AI. The AI acts like a curious journalist, asking me the right questions to get to the answers I actually need.
- An Initial Technical Filter: I used to feel insecure asking technical questions. Now, while I focus on soft skills, the AI helps me assess technical skills I don’t personally possess. This allows me to get initial technical feedback before even involving a Tech Lead, optimizing the team’s time and raising the bar for quality from the very first contact.
- Reclaiming My Time: Research and operational tasks that once took days now take hours. By delegating the heavy lifting of drafting Job Descriptions or summarizing reports to my “Agents,” I’ve bought back the most precious thing I have: time.
The Real Threat
I also learned something crucial: the real risk isn’t that a machine will walk into your office and take your chair. The real danger is stagnation.
If we refuse to adapt, we aren’t protecting our “humanity”: we are effectively opting out of the future. Adaptation is the ultimate human skill. The only way the machine “wins” is if we stop learning how to lead it.
What about you? What’s stopping you from exploring AI as a tool for your work today?
