By Kristen Kautz
These two shifts are the whole game when it comes to using AI successfully.
When I talk about AI, I always start here. My philosophy is that AI creates a “super you.” You are not handing your brain over to a robot. You are putting on a cape and gaining powers. You become a superhero (and seriously, who doesn’t want to be a superhero). AI plus you equals super you. You become a better, faster, clearer version of yourself.
But that only works if you change how you think about this technology.
AI is not “just the new internet.” It is not “just another piece of software.” If you treat it like that, you will miss what is actually happening and your total potential. AI is like air now. It is going to affect every person in your organization, and it is already showing up in your tools, in your workflows, in the systems your clients use, in the apps your employees have on their phones. It is everywhere.
For years, our firms have spent huge amounts of money on “shiny IT.” You buy the thing, implement the thing, train on the thing, and then half the people say, “It doesn’t do what I thought it would do” and the other half say, “I am too busy to use it.” What do you have to show for this giant investment of money and time? A tiny return, if any. With AI, that math flips. You give it some knowledge, some resources, some time, and the return can be huge. Your investment has a real, quantifiable payoff and easily pivots when you add/edit tools or scale.
So, the first mindset shift is this: AI is absolutely different from any software or hardware we have seen before. You must believe this before you move forward. It is infrastructure now, not a gadget. It is more like electricity than a single device that plugs into the wall.
The second mindset shift is harder. You must change how you think about yourself.
I ask audiences all the time, “Who here has a clear purpose? A real mission-driven purpose?” In a recent room of 150 leaders in our industry, only 20 raised their hand. This is not a shaming moment. It is just proof that this is a difficult question.
Most of us have been trained to see ourselves as the sum of our tasks and how busy we stay with them. I send the emails. I rewrite the text. I review redlines. I check invoices. I submit the drawings. I schedule the meetings. I log the meeting notes. Etc, etc. etc. If that is how you define yourself, AI can handle most of that already and even automate it. Where does that leave you and your job?
Probably fearful.
But if you redefine yourself as your purpose, everything changes!
For example, if a marketer now says, “I am a revenue generator for my firm. I am the last critical step in a long business development cycle. I am the person who turns all of that chasing and positioning into a signed contract. And that contract provides salaries for employees so that employees can have the life they want.” That is value. That is Intention. AI cannot replace that. AI can only make us better at it.
The same is true for architects and designers. If you believe your value is equated to your role of “producing drawings and getting the set out the door,” AI can and will absolutely touch a majority of that work. If you believe your value is “to shape better decisions, protect the client, elevate the project, and create spaces that serve people,” then AI becomes a power tool in your hands, not a threat. Value lives in judgment, relationships, and creativity. AI amplifies those. It does not own them.
You and your peers need a sense of purpose to even meet me at the starting line of this AI marathon. If you are terrified of AI, it is almost always because you see yourself as a bundle of rote tasks instead of as a person with true, irreplaceable worth.
Start by getting really honest about your purpose. Go grab your vice, whether that is pizza, ice cream, a glass of Malbec or whiskey, whatever makes you happy and fits your lifestyle. Sit outside for thirty minutes. Ask yourself, “If my tasks disappeared tomorrow, what would I still bring to my firm, my clients, my community? What am I here to do?”
Once you have that, AI becomes much less scary and much more exciting. You can say, now I am going to use every tool available, including AI, to become the best version of who I am. You can use it in a meeting, in a design charrette, inside your proposal process, quietly at your desk, or in your own time when you are learning. It does not matter where AI shows up. It is still you, doing your work, with more power. You must believe this, too, before you move forward.
So yes, change how you think about AI. See it as air, as infrastructure, as a massive amplifier of what you do and who you are.
But even more importantly, change how you think about yourself. You are not your task list. You are your higher purpose. You are irreplaceable.
And when you are clear on both of these, AI plus you equals SUPER YOU.
What do you do once you believe AI is a superpower?
You start by identifying your “why you need AI.” This is not a philosophical exercise. It is a practical bridge between purpose and action. Your “why” is found in your real use cases. What slows you down, burns hours, drains teams, affects clients, or gets in the way of doing your highest value work? Write these down. List your repetitive tasks, your communication gaps, your decision bottlenecks, your training challenges, and your opportunities to deepen creativity or clarity. These are your signals. They reveal where AI can have immediate impact inside your firm and inside your role.
Once you identify your use cases, your next step is matching them with the right type of AI solution. Not every problem needs a custom build. Sometimes the answer is an AI tool you already have inside an enterprise system (those big vendor software programs your firm already pays for). Sometimes it is an assistant that supports your daily work. Sometimes it is an AI agent that takes on multi-step tasks from beginning to end. Sometimes the answer is automation that runs quietly in the background. But remember, the key is choosing based on the problem you want to solve, not based on the buffet of choices you have. Your AI solutions will fall into three paths: buy it, build it, or use what you already own. Every firm can start somewhere on this spectrum.
If you want to go further, start with yourself. Think of AI as your virtual business coach. Use it to rehearse conversations, prepare for meetings, manage your time, gain clarity on your goals, test decisions, or refine your thinking. This builds confidence, and confidence spreads. Once you feel the benefits personally, it becomes much easier expand your super powers exponentially. You become the quiet proof that AI is not a threat. It is a multiplier.
Then, widen the circle. You can show peers what you did, how fast it worked, and why it mattered. Share a use case with your project manager. Share a time-saving workflow with your principal. Share a risk reduction example with your operations team. You can help others take on small experiments that build momentum. I am a HUGE believer in the aggregation of marginal gains. When people see clear, practical value, resistance fades. They need to see for themselves, with their own eyes and usage, how their day gets easier or how their work becomes better. That is how you move from belief to action. That is how you build trust inside your firm.
You know your value as a person.
You decide why you need AI.
You match the need to the right type of solution.
When you do all of this, AI stops being abstract, and seeking solutions becomes an active part of your culture. You move from fear to clarity. You move from inertia to measurable progress. So put on your cape, this is the least advanced you and AI will ever be.
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Kristin Kautz is an AI strategist, industry truth-teller, and unapologetic champion of human potential. As the co-founder of JAM Idea Agency and creator of AI IQ (https://www.jamideaagency.com/ai-iq-home), her purpose is to ignite and energize the AEC industry by empowering professionals with AI knowledge, building a community of AI enthusiasts, and sparking innovation through accessible AI resources. She writes, teaches, and consults from a farm in Connecticut, where she sits outside with a glass of Malbec, looks out over wildflowers, and thinks deeply about the intersection of identity, possibility, and technology.
You can find her at KLK@jamideaagency.com, https://www.kristinkautz.com, and https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinkautz/. She will talk about AI with anyone anywhere anytime. You can grab time on her calendar here: https://app.usemotion.com/meet/kristin-kautz/meeting.
(Return to the cover of the January 2026 PM Digest)