How to Tell What AI You Actually Need for a Job (LOL Yes There's a Prompt)

AI Agents are a hammer looking for nails at this point.

They’re a great solution everyone has taken and assumed is THE solution AI has for everything.

Wrong.

AI is a spectrum of capabilities, and we’re treating it like a light switch: Agent or chat? That’s not how it works.

AI is more like a puzzle, less like a light switch.

Your task when you work with AI is to figure out how to map a solution space to a problem space, like fitting a puzzle piece in place.

So this is gonna answer a LOT of the most practical questions I get, like:

1. What kind of AI agent do I need to automate this research project?

2. What kind of AI can help with marketing copy?

3. What about automating bookkeeping?

4. Or helping us invoice faster?

5. Or automating ticket triage?

6. What about automating some of our social media posts?

The list goes on, but you get the idea.

I wrote this to make those tough AI questions easier for you.

I’ve looked across the projects I’ve built and advised on over the last couple years, and mapped out at least 6 different AI solution shapes. Think of them as puzzle piece types. They help you figure out whether a particular AI solve will match the task you want help with or not.

And to make it actionable, I wrote up some quick check questions and an easy prompt to make figuring out what you need easier for you. Enjoy!