AI has been on my mind a lot lately.

Not in a hype way.

Not in a “we need to automate everything” way.

More in a… are we thinking about this the right way? kind of way.

A few weeks ago, our 1.5-year-old Bosch dishwasher started flashing an E22 error.
Standing water in the bottom. Wouldn’t drain.
My first thought was, “This is going to cost me.”
Instead of calling someone, I pulled out my phone.
I took a picture of the error.
I took a picture of the bottom of the dishwasher where the pump is located.
AI immediately pointed out the standing water and gave me a few possible causes:

1. Kink in the drain line
2. Clogged filter
3. Pump issue

I went through all three. Took more pictures. Asked more questions.

After eliminating those, it suggested something I wouldn’t have guessed:
The all-natural detergent we were using was causing calcium buildup.
If we wanted to keep using it, we needed to run a bowl with a cup of vinegar through the dishwasher monthly.

That was it.

No service call.
No replacing parts.
No hours of trial and error.

It probably saved me hundreds of dollars and a lot of time.
And that’s when it hit me:
If this can diagnose my dishwasher better than I can… what does this mean for business?

But Then I Had Another Thought
As powerful as that moment was, it also made me pause.
When I think about my kids…
I don’t let them use AI.
Not because I’m against it — but because I want them to build critical thinking first.
I want them to learn how to reason through problems.

How to research.
How to struggle through figuring something out.
There’s something important about building that muscle before introducing a tool that can shortcut it.

And the same thought applies at work.

When employees use AI to summarize, analyze, or recommend…
Have they comprehended the concepts?
Do they understand the philosophy behind the decision?
Or are they blindly trusting something because it sounds polished and confident?

AI is very good at sounding right.

But it doesn’t have judgment.
It doesn’t have context for your values.
It doesn’t have long-term accountability for the outcomes.

That’s the human part.

The Real Balance
AI is an incredible tool.

It helped me solve a real problem in my kitchen quickly and intelligently.
Inside a business, it can:

• Remove busy work
• Accelerate research
• Identify patterns
• Clean up data
• Draft faster

But it should augment thinking — not replace it.

The companies that win won’t be the ones handing decision-making to AI.

They’ll be the ones developing teams who:

• Think clearly
• Understand first principles
• And then use AI to move faster

That order matters.

A Quote That Stuck With Me
“AI won’t replace you — but someone using AI might.”

I don’t see that as fear-driven.
I see it as a leadership responsibility.

Use the tool.
Develop the thinker.
Don’t lose the human element.

That’s the balance I’m trying to strike at home and at Jolt.

If you’re navigating this too, we’d be happy to sit down and talk through what a thoughtful AI roadmap looks like for your organization — practical, grounded, and aligned with your values.

Start small.

But start intentionally.

 

– Justen Beasley, President