When has anything worth doing ever been easy?
There’s a pattern worth noticing: people mention they’ve “dabbled” with ChatGPT or Claude, then confidently declare the outputs hollow or lacking depth. But learning to use AI effectively isn’t about mastering a tool—it’s about developing relational skill. And relationships take time.
Consider how long it takes to develop meaningful conversation with a new colleague. A few shallow exchanges don’t reveal what’s possible. Over time, patterns emerge: how they think, what prompts deeper engagement, when to push back, how to build on what surfaces. Someone who’s had two brief conversations shouldn’t confidently assess that colleague’s intellectual capabilities.
Or think about collaborative thinking with a sparring partner. Both parties actively contribute. Some people gel quickly, but genuine depth takes sustained engagement. Both develop understanding of each other’s strengths and limitations, when to defer, when to challenge, how ideas build through exchange.
Or musical improvisation, where both musicians actively respond to what the other is doing, learning when to lead and when to follow, how to build on what emerges. The music exists in the relationship, not in either participant alone.
Learning to use AI effectively works the same way. Creating meaningful outputs requires developing conversational facility—understanding its affordances and limitations, recognising when it’s genuinely helping versus producing plausible-sounding text, learning how to build on what emerges through exchange. None of this develops from a few attempts.
The issue isn’t that AI produces hollow outputs during early use. The issue is expecting relational depth without relational investment. Early interactions will be unsatisfying—that’s how any meaningful engagement develops. What matters is whether someone persists long enough to develop genuine facility.
Dismissing AI after minimal engagement says more about willingness to invest in relationship than it does about AI’s capabilities. Meaningful engagement requires sustained investment. Always has, always will.