Are You the AI Guy?

Everyone at your company is making a decision about AI right now. Most of them aren't making it consciously. But they're making it.

You're making it too.

The time to wait and see has passed. You either accept you're not going to use AI tools (and watch others pass you by), or you embrace them. If you embrace them, you have exactly two paths.

Path A: Be the AI Guy

You're the person in the office who gets it. When someone mentions they're struggling with a task, you show them how AI could help. When leadership asks who should evaluate a new tool, your name comes up. You answer questions. You share what you've learned. You build a reputation.

This takes work. You have to actually understand the technology well enough to explain it. You have to spend time helping others instead of just using your edge. You become a teacher, not just a user.

The upside is significant. You become indispensable. When AI projects need leadership, you're the obvious choice. When companies are deciding who's essential and who's redundant, the person who can help everyone else do more isn't on the layoff list.

You also reduce risk for your organization. Adoption happens through sanctioned channels. There's visibility. There's governance. You're the bridge between what's possible and what's safe.

Path B: Be the Secret AI Guy

You use AI constantly. Maybe daily. You paste documents into Claude, get better drafts back, and submit them as your own work. You use it to code, to analyze, to plan. Your output has improved noticeably, maybe dramatically. Maybe you've even graduated to more powerful tools like NotebookLM by Google or Claude Cowork. Nice.

Nobody knows. That's the point. It's your private edge. Your competitive advantage. You operate as a star performer, and the secret stays yours.

This works. It's not wrong. You're capturing real productivity gains.

But you're also creating potential problems. The reputation you're building is for the work, not the skill. Someone else is will eventually become "the AI person" at your company, and it won't be you. When the opportunities that come with that reputation appear, they'll go to the person who was visible.

And if something goes wrong? You're completely alone. Confidential data in an unauthorized tool. An AI-generated document that causes an issue. There's no air cover. There's no "we made a decision as a company." There's just you, explaining why you were using tools nobody knew about.

Here's a quick way to see where you actually sit. Be honest with yourself.

The Executive's Version

If you lead a team or run a company, you're facing the same choice. Just with higher stakes.

Which type do you want more of? Public AI users or secret ones?

Because here's the reality. If you don't want Secret AI Guys feeding proprietary information into unauthorized tools, you need to build a culture that celebrates the Public AI Guy. You can't punish shadow usage if you've made open usage feel risky or embarrassing.

I've seen this play out. Companies where mentioning AI in a meeting gets you skeptical looks. Where trying something new feels like a career risk. Where the safest thing is to keep your head down and your tools hidden.

Those companies don't have less AI usage. They have less visible AI usage. The same people are using the same tools. They're just doing it in secret, without oversight, without shared learning, without any governance at all.

This is the worst possible outcome. You get all of the risk and no long-term benefit.

What Actually Works

The companies doing this well have made a decision. AI is here. We're going to use it. Let's figure out how to do it safely.

They've created space for their AI Guy to emerge. They celebrate the person who figures things out and shares what they learn. They build guidelines, not just rules. They make it clear that trying things is encouraged, as long as you're doing it openly.

This isn't about being a tech company. Some of the best examples I've seen are in manufacturing, healthcare, financial services. Industries where "move fast and break things" has never been the culture. They just decided that hiding from AI isn't a strategy.

The executives who lead these transformations aren't AI experts themselves. They're people who recognized that this is happening whether they like it or not, and they'd rather have it happen in the light than in the dark.

Your Actual Choice

Strip away the technology for a second. This is really about two questions.

For individuals: Do you want to build a reputation for helping others, or keep your advantages to yourself?

For leaders: Do you want to know what's happening in your organization, or pretend it isn't?

Both have trade-offs. Neither is obviously right. But you can't avoid the choice. Doing nothing is just choosing the secret path by default.

I've worked with enough companies to know that the ones who thrive through technological change are the ones who face it openly. The people who become indispensable are the ones who help others adapt. The leaders who stay in control are the ones who create space for visibility.

You don't have to be an AI expert to be the AI Guy. You just have to be the person willing to learn out loud.

Where This Leads

If you're reading this and thinking "okay, but where do I actually start," here's one suggestion.

The next time you use an AI tool to help with something at work, tell someone. Share what you did. Show them the process. Answer their questions.

That's it. That's the first step from secret user to public advocate.

For leaders, the equivalent is simpler but harder: make it safe to talk about AI. Ask your team what tools they're using. Ask without judgment. Create the space where your AI Guy can emerge.

What comes after that depends on your situation. But every good strategy starts the same way: with the truth about where you actually are.

The choice is already being made. You might as well make it consciously.

FAQ

Is it wrong to use AI secretly at work?

It's not a moral failing, but it creates real risk. If your organization doesn't know what tools people are using, it can't protect its data or ensure compliance. The person using AI secretly is exposed if something goes wrong. The smarter play is to push for policies that let you use these tools openly.

How do I become "the AI person" without looking like I'm just chasing a trend?

Focus on helping others solve real problems, not on the technology itself. Don't lead with "AI is amazing." Lead with "I found a way to do this faster." The people who build lasting reputations are the ones who make others more effective, not the ones who talk about the latest tools.

What if my company culture discourages AI adoption?

That's a governance failure, not a technology problem. Leadership has created an environment where the safest move is to hide. You can try to change that culture by being openly helpful, but you also have to be realistic about what's possible. Some organizations aren't ready. The question becomes whether you want to wait for them or find somewhere that is.

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