The world kind of lined up this week, so I’m going to talk about AI.

Yes, again.

So sorry.

When I say the world has lined up this week, it’s that the tool/concept/pariah that is AI has hit me in some form or another, literally every day this week. One day was a video with interesting twists to it, another was a long and unexpected conversation among writer friends, one was a strange little exercise I undertook as a pure test, and then along came the current issues of the IBPA’s Independent, which I finally got round to thumbing through and which has several articles focused on professionals in the field who are using Artificial Intelligence to make their businesses better (of which there are many).

Maybe this is just a case of me being attuned to the conversations even more intently than I have been in the past, but I don’t think so. While making my use of AI transparent (as in, I’m not staunchly against AI, but I don’t use it for anything related to my writing right now), I’m paying a LOT of attention to it. I’d say I spend 30-60 minutes a day in something that I’ll call AI adjacent spaces. I’m taking in a lot of perspectives, pro, anti, and neutral, probably because it’s literally everywhere I look.

So, no. I don’t think this nexus I ran into is because I’m overly sensitive.

I think it’s ramping up.

And good for it, I suppose.

That said, I have been thinking a lot more personally about the use of AI (which I’m thinking of now as “Augmented” Intelligence rather than “Artificial”) because I’m reaching that stage of the year where I take a deep breath and begin thinking about my writing business going forward. The New Year is coming, right? It’s only natural that we humans take a break and figure out what we’re doing.

For me, 2025 has been a weird year.

It’s not been easy, but mostly it’s been a year of recovery and reorientation.

At the same time, though, it’s been a year of expansion.

I’ve managed to get some words in, too. I haven’t been massively productive in creating, but despite inverting my priorities to get my business tools better in place than they were, I’ve gotten some things written. Now I’m spending this last month of the year thinking and prioritizing, and settling more deeply into what I’m thinking of as a Standard Workflow—one that includes writing in the mornings, and production and business in the afternoons.

That’s how I’ve always worked best. I suspect that’s what I’ll get back to.

The question, though, is: what will the goals of my afternoons be?

I’m guessing the answer to that question will have a lot to do with how I come out thinking about Augmented Intelligence.

I have several things I’d like to do this year—specifically on my mind right now is the idea of expanding and making better use of my direct store, Skyfox Publishing. But there’s a lot more, too. A couple of years ago, I’d made a comprehensive slide of my business operations, complete with things I was doing then, and things I wanted to be doing as time went by. Like most thought experiments, it was all over the place. But looking back on it now, I’m happy to note that I’ve gotten a few of those things implemented since that time, and I clearly need to adjust things to get rid of ideas that no longer get me excited.

One thing that was NOT on that old list was expanding my use of AI for business purposes.

But that idea is front and center now.

Because the world is talking to me, you see? It’s saying that it’s (probably past) the time to jump in and figure out what it can do to make my life easier—or more relevant, better.

This is the point I’m coming to regarding Augmented Intelligence.

Better, not faster.

Read that again. By better, I don’t mean faster. Speed could be a part of it, of course. But when I say better, I mean better. Because that idea that I can do tasks better using AI than I do them today is the thing that has me interested.

My sweetie, for example, is currently using her Augmented Intelligence buddy (who she calls Georgie Girl) to help her learn to code an application she’s going to use to track my book sales. She’s a software person by degree, profession, and mindset, but she’s working in a new programming environment. So she’s using the tool to augment and improve her learning process and her code work.

It’s been fascinating to watch her form her process.

The project is my wife’s concept. She’s stepping through the entire design. But Georgie is making her better.

When she is finished with that effort, she’s already got her next project worked out.

So, as the New Year approaches, I’m thinking about these things, too.

Though I know enough about myself and the world around me to never say never, I’m probably never going to be particularly excited about using AI to create my fiction, but everywhere I look these days, I’m seeing people who are becoming better at doing something by focusing Augmented Intelligence on those tasks.

I like the idea of doing something better than I am doing it today.

As I stew on the future, I have highlighted at least three areas I want to focus on in 2026. Skyfox Publishing, yes. Not that I have that store, I need to utilize it better. I’d like to communicate with my readers and creative community better. I also intend to expand my use of tools and systems to better track my own business assets. And, yes, expand my distribution reach to better find whatever my audience can be.

I think now is the time to take a deeper dive into what Augmented Intelligence can do for me in these areas of life. I’m not sure how to segment my time around the idea, but it’s something that (like the Indie publishers highlighted in IBPA’s Independent) I’m thinking about a lot. My plan today is pretty unsophisticated, though. Simply pull up a screen with one of the engines and start talking about my goals.

We’ll see where it gets me.

Will that be an hour a day? An hour a week?

More?

Less?

I don’t know.

Maybe the idea will crash and burn, and I’ll be back to square one.

But I think I need to do something with AI more than I’m doing today—which is mostly to fiddle around like it’s pseudo-Google—a use for which it’s getting quite good at, to be sure—mostly better than Google for most things I come to it with.

I’m writing this today for two reasons.

First, I’ve said publicly that I’ll be transparent about my use of AI, so I felt it was important to bring it up.

I still have no intention to use it for fiction, but I feel like fulfilling my pledge of transparency should include the use of it in supporting the business side of the game, too. In that light, as I learn things for myself, I’ll share them here as it seems to make sense.

And second, because I’m going to turn the tables here.

This is my statement of purpose.

I’m officially a person whose ears and eyes are open to ideas.

So, please, if you’ve done anything worthwhile for yourself, I’m all yours. I’m interested. If you’ve undertaken a learning effort and found value, let me know. If you’ve got suggestions, I’m ready.

For better or for worse.

[insert white-knuckled grin here]

I am a human. Not an AI. You can tell because keep a Patreon page where I talk about writing and being a writer (among other things). In other words, I post a lot of things there before I post them here. This post, for example, was there first. I also share occasional work in progress for Patrons only, and give special discounts and sometimes even free books to Patrons at various levels. If you’d like to support me–or just this blog–you can do so by clicking here: