3 Reasons Generative AI is Failing: You're Using It Wrong
ChatGPT didn’t make you more productive. It made you a lazy editor.
I’ve watched 1,000 "AI influencers" sell you the dream of a four-hour workweek. I’ve seen the $97 prompt packs. I’ve read the threads about how "AI will replace your entire marketing team by Tuesday."
It’s all noise.
I spent the last 18 months integrating LLMs into high-growth workflows. I’ve tested every model from GPT-4 to Claude 3.5 to local Llama installs. Here is the cold, hard truth: Most people are getting a 0% ROI on Generative AI.
In fact, most people are actually getting slower. They are producing worse work. They are drowning in a sea of "delve," "tapestry," and "comprehensive."
1. You are treating a reasoning engine like a search engine.
This is the biggest mistake I see. You use ChatGPT like it’s Google. You type in a short query and expect a perfect result.
Google is a library. It indexes facts. LLMs are reasoning engines. They predict the next token based on logic and patterns.
The value isn't in the AI's knowledge. It's in the AI's ability to synthesize yours.
2. You are optimizing for speed over taste.
The internet is currently being flooded with "AI Slop."
That is the fastest way to become invisible.
I see people spending three hours "refining a prompt" to get a perfect output. They are trying to remove the human from the loop. That’s a mistake.
The human is the value.
If you aren't spending more time editing the output than you spent writing the prompt, you aren't a creator. You’re a mailman. You’re just delivering someone else's (the AI’s) mediocre ideas.
3. You are suffering from "Prompt Procrastination."
There is a new type of procrastination. I call it "Prompt Engineering."
I’ve seen teams spend weeks building complex prompt libraries. They have "Mega-Prompts" that are 2,000 words long. They have Notion databases full of "Magic Phrases."
It’s a cope. It’s a way to feel productive without actually doing the work.
The best prompt is a conversation.
I stopped using "templates" months ago. Templates are rigid. They don't adapt to the nuance of your specific problem.
"Too formal. Make it punchier." "You missed the point about the pricing model. Fix that." "Delete the first three paragraphs. Start at the hook."
Short, iterative feedback loops beat "perfect" prompts every single time.
The Hot Take: The "Prompt Engineer" is a Dead Man Walking.
Everyone told you to learn "Prompt Engineering." They were wrong.
The models are getting smarter. They are getting better at understanding intent. In twelve months, "Prompt Engineering" will be as relevant as "knowing how to use a fax machine."
The real skill isn't talking to machines. It's Human-AI Orchestration.
The winners of the next five years won't be the people who can write the best prompts. They will be the people who can break down a massive, complex goal into a series of small, logical steps that a machine can execute.
It’s not about the "Magic Spell." It’s about the Logic Chain.
The most valuable skill in 2025 is the ability to deconstruct a problem. If you can't think logically, you can't use AI. If you can't write clearly, you can't use AI.
Stop looking for the "Perfect Prompt." Start fixing your own logic.