You finished something in 30 minutes with AI, that would have taken 3 hours. The output is better than you could have done alone.
You feel guilty but not because anyone said anything. It’s because you’re thinking… this was too easy. You took a shortcut. You didn’t really earn it. You’re not imagining this stigma. And you’re not alone.
This pattern shows up every time technology makes hard things easier. Calculators were “cheating” in the 70s. Spell check was “lazy” in the 90s. We were judged.
The internet, e-commerce, online banking, ride-sharing apps. All faced resistance. All became standard. At some point, it will simply be a part of everything we do and people will question why we’re NOT using AI.
A recent Harvard study found people using AI reported less stress because they had help managing time pressures. Just as the stigma is real, the relief is too.
And what helps is knowing where YOUR friction point actually is. I built a quick assessment (2 minutes, 6 questions) that shows you exactly where your challenge shows up and offers some guidance to reframe. See link to the assessment in the comments.
Getting to the right outcome is more important than how hard it felt. You’re making it better by focusing on work that actually needs your judgment.
You can stop feeling guilty about:
- Using AI to help you prompt better
- Letting AI handle tedious parts
- Getting to good work faster instead of proving you struggled enough
The guilt made sense when shortcuts meant cutting corners. That’s not what’s happening here.
The technology is easy. We are the hard part.
And navigating that is exactly the transformation work.