AI in Mid Life - The Quiet Hesitation

Standing at the edge of what we know, wondering how much of ourselves we bring into what comes next.

Lately I’ve noticed different attitudes in relation to AI. This is with people in mid life – my kind of group!

Some are curious, open, use it – a lot – or are willing to learn.

Others lower their voice a little:

“I know I should try it…”

“It’s just not how I work…”

“I don’t even know where to begin…”

"It gets many things wrong.. "

And what strikes me with this group is that it is not about capability, it is about identity. For many of us, this moment touches deeper stories:

• Am I still relevant?

• Can I keep up?

• Will this make me obsolete?

These questions are signs of change. And the invitation is to listen. To stay present. To remember that relevance is something we realign with, again and again and again.

Within the group using AI, often some hesitate to let it really help them. As if letting AI carry weight is somehow cheating, as if doing so would mean you are no longer really doing your job, you are outsourcing your skill.

But my question would be:

What mandate do we carry that makes us think ease is a kind of betrayal? What if using this support well is wisdom and not weakness ? Especially for those of us in mid life, who carry the experience, discernment and context to curate what AI offers and shape it. Beneath that mandate there is often a familiar story, that value comes from effort and we must keep proving ourselves.

And if we use it a lot, I have experienced how AI can quietly erode something more subtle: our voice. It can round off our edges, flatten our tone, polish away the contradictions that make our work personal, layered, imperfect and real.

So how do we work with that? It is something to stay mindful of, to remember that our tone comes through, our lens, our history, our stories, all these shape what is created and we need to keep letting it through.

And keep asking:

• Am I using this to deepen the work or to speed through it? What does either need from me?

• Is this what I actually believe?

  
  

AI should give us more space to do the work that matters, the work that only we can do.

That we ask ourselves what that is.

That we engage with depth in what we create.