Short answer. Do not use AI for licensed advisor work (financial, legal, medical advice), high-stakes customer communications without human review, hiring decisions that advance or reject candidates, strategic bets requiring judgment, or anything where AI being confidently wrong costs more than AI being usefully right saves.
Never for Licensed Advisor Work
Tax filing. Legal representation. Medical diagnosis. Investment advice. Financial planning where fiduciary duty applies. All licensed for regulatory reasons that AI does not satisfy.
Use AI to research and prepare questions. Use licensed advisors for the actual work. This is not a limitation of technology. It is a design of the regulatory system.
Never Without Human Review on High-Stakes Communications
Complaint responses. First contact with major prospects. Communications with lawyers or courts. Public statements. Investor updates. Board communications.
The pattern: anything where a bad message could cause a lost customer, a lawsuit, a viral post, or a governance issue needs a human review before sending. AI drafts fine. Never sends unreviewed.
Never for Hiring Gate Decisions
Rejecting candidates. Advancing candidates. Scoring interviews. Automated hiring decisions.
Multiple states now regulate AI in hiring. The EEOC has adverse impact concerns. Even where legal, the bias risk is real. Use AI to draft and research. Keep humans in every gate.
Never for Strategic Judgment Without Human Filter
Market entry. Pricing strategy. Product portfolio choices. Acquisition targets. Partnership decisions. Anything where the answer is 'it depends' more than 'here is the calculation.'
AI can inform these decisions. AI cannot make them. Owners who let AI produce strategic recommendations without applying judgment are outsourcing the most valuable thinking to a tool that has no stake in the outcome.
The Cost-Benefit Test
For any AI use case, ask: what does AI being confidently wrong cost me? What does AI being usefully right save me?
For drafting a routine email, wrong costs 5 minutes to fix, right saves 10 minutes. Use AI.
For a customer complaint response, wrong could cost a customer (thousands to lifetime value), right saves 30 minutes. Draft with AI, human sends.
For a tax filing decision, wrong could cost an audit or penalty (thousands to tens of thousands), right saves 2 hours. Do not use AI standalone.
The math is simple. The discipline to apply it consistently is the hard part.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use AI to draft a contract? +
For a first draft, yes. Have an attorney review before signing. Never sign an AI-drafted contract without legal review.
Can I use AI to respond to an angry customer? +
Draft with AI, review as a human, adjust for tone. Never send unreviewed. Complaint responses can save or lose the customer entirely.
Can I use AI to run my whole business? +
No business has ever been run well by pure AI without human judgment. Not one. The technology is not there and may never be for judgment-intensive work.
How do I train employees on when NOT to use AI? +
Give them explicit categories where AI is banned (contracts, HR decisions, customer complaints, financial recommendations). Everything else, encourage AI use with the human-review discipline.
