what i'm teaching about AI in china

hey friends,

i fired AI from writing my newsletters. this is just me, wispr flow & my raw thoughts.

this week i’m in china, thankful for the opportunity to give 2 talks.

as i'm preparing, i keep thinking how to make these talks useful.

so much to share. new AI updates every day, it moves so fast. i make videos about them daily. you might’ve joined this newsletter from one of them

i don't want to give people a list of tools & no idea what to do with them.

something i keep coming back to, in business & personally, is clarity.

once you really understand what you want, it's a lot easier to figure out what to do next.

sounds obvious. but with AI, it's easy to skip that part.

before you automate anything

there's massive AI FOMO right now.

you open social media and you see all the hype. people with hundreds of agents. their whole business running on “auto-pilot.”

but "you need more AI" doesn't tell you how to use it.

before forcing ai, start with the process. get it out of your head and documented.

Wispr Flow is a simple way to start. talk through how you actually do the task. the real version, including the annoying bits, the decisions you make & what you do when something goes wrong.

then give that transcript to Claude:

read it back. correct it.

now you have something you can actually work with.

if you want help, i do weekly call in AI operators

then go looking for the tools

this is where the open source repos become useful.

you have a process you understand & a problem you're trying to solve.

you can ask Claude/ChatGPT to research open-source projects that fit that specific job. give it your SOP and a quick rant on the details.

ask it to compare options, link to the original sources & explain what would still need to be built or done manually. check the current docs, licence, costs & permissions before installing anything.

sometimes someone has already built what you need.

sometimes the answer is a simpler automation. sometimes you don't need another tool at all. don’t over-engineer or force ai

if you're looking for somewhere to start, here are the 10 repos & slides i've put together.

pick one because it fits something you need. you don't need to try all ten.

clarity first

that's what i want people to take away from these talks.

not that they need to automate everything. that they can get clear enough about their business to see where AI would actually help.

i think the same thing applies outside of work too. it's easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing before figuring out what you actually want.

this is a lesson i keep learning myself.

get clear first. then go build.

ways to work together

• want to build this stuff with me? AI Operators has weekly group calls & help putting it into practice. you can start with the free trial.

• want help figuring out where AI fits in your business & implementing it? get in touch with Cyndra. happy to chat.

i appreciate you reading this.

if something resonated or you have questions, just reply.

i'm rooting for you & hope the best.

→ johann