I want to tell you about something that happened to me today.
Not a success story. The opposite and an introduction into the danger of relying on AI.
I’m Joe, I run JoeAI, an AI consultancy in Crouch End, North London. I help small businesses use AI properly. Yesterday I got it badly wrong.
I was building a blog post. An article about AI tools for therapists, ironically enough. I was using AI to help me do it. Asking questions, following instructions, building the page step by step.
For a while it was going well. Then I hit a problem with the table of contents.
The AI Gave Me the Wrong Answer. Confidently.
The table of contents links were not working. They were not jumping to the right sections when clicked.
So I asked the AI for help.
It told me to go into each heading, find the HTML Anchor field, and manually type in an anchor ID. Fifteen headings. Fifteen anchor IDs. One by one.
I did it. All fifteen.
Then it told me there was a conflict in the HTML. The list items in the table of contents had picked up the same anchor IDs as the headings. I needed to go into the raw HTML and manually remove the ID from every list item.
I was about to start when I stopped and asked. Is there not a simpler way to do this?
The answer came back straight away.
Yes. Delete the whole thing. Use the Rank Math Table of Contents block. It handles everything automatically. Takes ten seconds.
Rank Math had been installed on my site the whole time.
Twenty minutes of unnecessary work. A better solution was sitting right there and the AI never mentioned it.
Why AI Gets It Wrong Even When It Sounds Right
The AI was not lying to me. Every instruction it gave was technically correct.
But it was not the right answer for my situation. It was just an answer.
It did not stop and think about what tools I already had. It did not ask what the simplest way to solve this would be. It just started generating steps that would eventually work without asking whether there was a better route.
And I followed them. Because the instructions were detailed and confident and I did not know enough to question them.
That is the trap.
What I Learned About Using AI for Business Properly
AI does not know what it does not know about your situation. It works with what you tell it. If you do not mention that Rank Math is installed, it will not suggest the Rank Math solution.
Confident does not mean correct. AI gives instructions in the same tone whether it is offering the best solution or the fourth best. There is no built in check that asks whether there is a simpler approach. You have to ask that yourself.
You need to direct it, not just follow it. The people getting the most from AI are the ones who stay in control. Using it to speed up their thinking, not replace it. The moment you stop questioning and just follow along, you are in trouble.
The tool is five percent of it. Knowing your problem well enough to use the tool properly is the rest.
The Dangers of Relying on AI for your Business Without Questioning It
If you are thinking about using AI to save time, this is the most important thing I can tell you.
AI will save you time on the right tasks, used in the right way, with someone checking the output. It will waste your time if you treat it as an authority rather than an assistant.
The businesses I see struggling with AI are not the ones who have not tried it. They are the ones who adopted it without questioning it. Who took every output at face value. Who followed confident instructions without stopping to ask if there was a better way.
I did that today. Twenty minutes of unnecessary work because I trusted the process without questioning it.
Why I’m Telling You This As An AI Consultant
I run an AI consultancy. I help small businesses use AI more effectively.
And today I fell into exactly the trap I warn my clients about.
But that is why I am writing this. The most useful thing I can do is be honest about how this technology actually works. Not just when it is impressive, but when it is not.
AI is a useful tool. But it needs a human who understands the problem, questions the answers, and knows when to say, hang on, is there a simpler way?
That is not a criticism of AI. That is just the reality of using any tool well.
And if you would like help working out how to use these tools properly in your business, you know where I am.
Joe Sack is an AI consultant based in Crouch End, North London. He helps small businesses use AI without the overwhelm and occasionally learns important lessons the hard way. Get in touch here or email joe@joeai.co.uk.