🪬 HumanAI #015 – 3 Steps to Becoming AI-First (Most People Skip #2)

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I was out for a couple of days, soaking up the first rays of sun on the beach in Punta del Este.

Did I set an “out of office” reply? Did I stop working completely?
I could have… but I didn’t need to.

These days, more than 85% of my work can be done on the go, straight from my phone or laptop.
And honestly… man, I love technology!

AI has been my sidekick for years now, and it’s a total productivity game-changer.

The kind that lets me travel, enjoy family time, and still keep things moving… without needing to actually go on leave (which means when I do take a proper break, I can fully disconnect and go off the radar guilt-free).

In my AI consulting work, I mostly help leaders and business owners from the so-called Silver Generation (40s, 50s and beyond) get started with AI.

Almost all of them arrive at me with the same question:
“Mencho, I get that AI is important… but where the hell do I start?
Everything online feels too fast and complicated.”

Damn.

People love overcomplicating AI.

They’ll tell you that you need to learn Python, become an engineer, or build 172-step automation flows to see massive results...

But most of us mere mortals, and honestly… also most organizations (especially SMBs), can get a HUGE ROI with just some small tweaks and hacks.

The first step and the biggest game-changer is just becoming AI-First.
By habit.

Over the past months, I’ve been experimenting with what it means to truly operate AI-First. Not as a tool you sometimes check, but as a way of thinking and working.

Today, I will break it down into something you can start using right now.

🧠 But first… What does it even mean to be AI-First?

These are the 7 principles of an AI-First approach.

1) Culture & habits:
From CEO to intern, everyone HAS to turn to AI before asking a colleague. This also applies to you individually.
Ask ChatGPT/Gemini/Claude/your-preferred-platform FIRST.
Do a brainstorming session with the AI and only then, go with this prep to your meeting/colleagues.
This simple and st*pid 10-min preparation creates speed, consistency, and collective learning.

2) Strategic principle:
AI stops being an add-on and becomes the core of how you design, deliver, and improve.

• Example: Duolingo → every product decision starts with “How do we solve this with AI?”

• Example: Shopify → new features are born with copilots baked in.

• Example: Mencho → I have an idea at 2am, I just spit it to AI and the next morning I have a draft to work from there with my team.

3) Build your AI stack:
Keep it simple. Choose 1 core platform as your main hub (mine is ChatGPT), the place where you’ll build a profile, train it with your preferences, and use it long term.

Around it, add satellite tools for specific use cases, like video, design, automation, research, etc. For eg. I use: Nano Banana for images, Veo3 for videos, HeyGen for AI avatars, ElevenLabs for voice cloning, among others.

4) Mindset shift (AI lens):
Before doing anything, the first question is: “What part of this could AI do better, faster, or cheaper?”
If you skip that step, the work is incomplete.

5) Redefinition of roles:
Humans focus on judgment, creativity, and relationships.
AI takes on volume, repetition, and data crunching.

6) AI-centric processes:
Every task (emails, reports, presentations, etc) starts with AI.
Humans then refine.
The workflow gets redesigned so AI is the first step, not the afterthought.

7) Infrastructure:
Systems, data, and workflows are built for AI by default: clean databases, standardized prompts, open APIs, controlled access.

Now’s your turn. This is the 3-step system I used with my team to become AI-First (right below the ad):

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⚡ 3 Steps to Becoming AI-First (Without Overthinking It)

Here’s the simple framework I’ve been using with my team and clients (and you can use too):

1. Ask AI Before Anything Else
Make it a reflex: before opening Google Docs, Excel, or calling a colleague, throw it into AI. Doesn’t matter if you use the output or not, what matters is building the muscle memory of starting with AI. Ask: “What’s the AI way of doing this?” 

2. Automate One Chore
Pick one boring, repetitive task you do every week… like summarizing meetings, drafting emails, or making slides, and redesign it so AI does 80% of the heavy lifting. (You’ll be surprised how quickly this compounds.)

3. Run a Weekly AI Retro to Reflect and Refine
Every Friday, look back at the week and ask:

• Where did AI save me the most time this week?

• Where did it flop?

• What’s one new workflow I’ll try next week?

Double down on what works.
This feedback loop is what turns experiments into permanent habits.

That’s it. Three moves. No coding. No giant systems. Just habits that make AI your default lens.

But here’s the bigger truth: AI-First isn’t about tech, it’s about mindset and practice.

The moment you decide “I’m the kind of person who uses AI first,” your brain rewires itself.

That’s how revolutions happen: not from learning new tools, but from shifting how we see ourselves.

Going AI-First is about building the muscle to use AI where it matters most.

If you want to accelerate this shift and actually practice it with my guidance, we’ve built two programs designed exactly for that:

🔹 AI LAB for Teams

Weekly 60-min practical, hands-on team sessions (bring up to 12 colleagues).

How it works:

• Discovery time: let’s dig into your structure, culture and processes and find the “low hanging fruit” opportunities of where you could start implementing small AI experiments (that could turn into solutions)

• 1 hands-on practice to start using AI right away (both individual and team performance)

• Live Q&A time

Private for your organization. Up to 12 people.
💵 $1000 per session total (min. 4 sessions, cancel anytime).
⏳ We only work with 2 teams per month.
Starts from next week. Reply to this email to book your Lab slot.

🔹 AI LAB for Leaders

Your shortcut to AI-Fluency.
This is a Certified Program focused on Personal and Professional AI Ownership.
5 weekly sessions (90 min each) where you’ll master:

• The 4 Core AI skills

• Try the best AI tools in the market (like actually do stuff with them)

• All through Practical Workflows, Templates and Guides.
  We’ll guide you on how to get the most out of them (we give you the copy+paste solution)

🎓 Certificate included.
👥 Max 5 leaders per lab (2 spots already gone).
💵 $1500 per person for the full program (5 × 90min sessions).
⏳ Next cohort starts September 30th. We run only 1 Leaders Lab per month.

👉 If you’re ready to make the jump from “knowing AI is important” to actually becoming AI-Empowered, hit REPLY and I’ll send you the details.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed today’s edition!

As always… Stay active, stay sharp.

Mencho
🪬

P.S.
When my company flipped to AI-First by design, we cut 40% of repetitive work without adding a single tool… that’s over 15 hours saved per week for my team!!
Sometimes the hack is just developing a habit.

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