I was genuinely dismissive of AI tools for two years and then one specific experience changed my mind completely

I want to be honest about my history with this because I think it is relevant. For about two years I was actively dismissive of AI tools. Not casually sceptical, actively dismissive. I thought the hype was detached from reality, that the outputs I saw were mediocre, and that the people evangelising about it were either credulous or had a financial interest in the narrative.

The thing that changed my mind was not a general improvement in the tools. It was one specific task. I had a document, a lengthy, badly organised internal report that I needed to turn into a clear executive summary. I had been putting it off for a week because I found the task genuinely unpleasant. On a whim I pasted it into Claude and asked for a structured summary.

What came back was better than what I would have written and took four minutes instead of two hours. I sat with that for a while. Then I started paying attention differently.

I am not an evangelist now. I still think a lot of the hype is disconnected from what the tools actually do. But I was wrong about the dismissal and I think it is worth saying that plainly.