The One AI Rule

Let’s just jump right in.

Only use AI for tasks you already know how to do without AI.

This keeps you sharp while making you faster. Break this rule and you become dependent on a tool making decisions you can’t verify.

Why This Matters

When you use AI outside your competence zone, you can’t judge quality. You can’t improve the output. You can’t answer customer questions about your own content. You’re not building a business—you’re building a house of cards.

Think about it: If you don’t know what good looks like, how will you know when AI gets it wrong?

The Six Quick Tests

Run every AI task through these filters:

The Verification Test – Can you tell if the output is good or needs work? If you’re just hoping it’s right, you’re in trouble.

The Accountability Test – Would you defend every decision the AI made? Could you explain the reasoning behind each choice to a customer?

The Dependency Test – If AI disappeared tomorrow, would you be stuck or just slower? Growing dependency is a red flag.

The Value-Add Test – Is AI making you better or just making you look busy? There’s a big difference between productivity and activity.

The Iteration Test – Are you refining the output or blindly copy-pasting? If you’re accepting first drafts without changes, you’re outside your zone.

The Teaching Test – Could you teach someone else to do this task? If not, you shouldn’t be delegating it to AI either.

When to Use AI (Green Light)

Use AI for tasks you’ve mastered and do repeatedly.

Draft emails you’ll edit because you know what good emails look like. You’ve written thousands. AI just makes you faster.

Create social post variations because you understand your brand voice. You can spot when AI misses the mark immediately.

Speed up research you know how to do manually. AI finds sources faster, but you judge which ones matter.

Write first drafts of content where you have real expertise. You’ll rewrite half of it because you know your subject cold.

Generate ideas for campaigns you’ll evaluate and refine. The judgment is yours, not the machine’s.

When NOT to Use AI (Red Light)

Never use AI for tasks outside your competence.

Don’t write all your website copy if you don’t understand conversion principles. A business owner once used AI for every service page. The copy looked professional but converted at 0.3%. The AI didn’t understand customer objections. The owner couldn’t fix it because they didn’t know what was broken.

Don’t handle customer service in technical areas you can’t verify. One wrong answer destroys trust you spent years building.

Don’t make strategic decisions you don’t actually understand. AI can’t replace judgment you haven’t developed.

Don’t create content you can’t defend or troubleshoot. If a customer asks “why did you recommend this?” and you have no answer, you’ve failed.

The HipBip Approach

After 26 years building websites, we use AI to draft content faster. We don’t use it for strategy, client solutions, or technical decisions we haven’t solved before.

The difference? We can judge every word the AI writes. We make it better because we know what better looks like.

We’ve written hundreds of blog posts by hand. Now AI gives us a first draft in minutes instead of hours. But we rewrite 40% of what it produces because we know our audience.

We’ve coded thousands of websites. AI can suggest code snippets. But we review every line because we understand what breaks and why.

That’s the point. AI amplifies existing expertise. It doesn’t create expertise that isn’t there.

Three Action Steps

1. Audit your AI use – List every task where you’re using AI right now. Be honest and complete.

2. Apply the six tests – Score yourself on each one. If you fail three or more, stop using AI for that task.

3. Stop the red lights – Quit using AI for tasks outside your competence zone. Either learn the skill first or hire someone who has it.

The Bottom Line

AI should make you faster at what you’re already good at. It shouldn’t replace skills you don’t have.

Use it right and you’ll dominate your market. You’ll produce better work in less time. You’ll stay sharp while competitors get lazy.

Use it wrong and you’re just producing more mediocrity, faster. You’ll become dependent on a tool you don’t understand. You’ll lose the ability to judge quality in your own business.

The choice is simple: Force multiplier or competence theater.

Choose wisely.