The biggest myth in AI consulting? That typing “Act as a strategist. Create a SWOT.” is the same as delivering a strategy.
It’s not. That’s just reading the dashboard lights. The real work is the repair.
Here’s the paradox: We can craft a brilliant prompt that generates a slick framework… but once perfected, that prompt is a commodity anyone can copy.
The differentiation lives in the work around the prompt:
Before → Curation: real inputs from stakeholders, proprietary data, market nuance.
After → Interrogation: pushing the AI’s draft through real consulting filters:
– Diagnosis: what’s actually broken?
– Cost: what will it take to fix (money, time, politics)?
– Feasibility: can this org even pull it off?
A great prompt proves you know which questions to ask.
The moat is having the rigor (and courage) to challenge the answers.
The flood of easy AI content is creating “AI Workslop.” The only way past it isn’t better prompts — it’s better decisions.
How are you using AI as a first mile, not the finish line?
- 🌐 Official Site: walterreid.com – Walter Reid’s full archive and portfolio
- 📰 Substack: designedtobeunderstood.substack.com – long-form essays on AI and trust
- 🪶 Medium: @walterareid – cross-posted reflections and experiments
💬 Reddit Communities:
r/UnderstoodAI – Philosophical & practical AI alignment
r/AIPlaybook – Tactical frameworks & prompt design tools
r/BeUnderstood – AI guidance & human-AI communication
r/AdvancedLLM – CrewAI, LangChain, and agentic workflows
r/PromptPlaybook – Advanced prompting & context control