I never meant to become "the AI guy" at work. Honestly, I just wanted to spend less time writing meeting notes.

It all started about 18 months ago when our company dropped this internal GPT-style model in our laps. "Here's this new thing - play around with it, but keep it secure," they said. At the time, I was drowning in my usual product manager stuff - endless meetings, countless action items, and the perpetual struggle of turning hours of conversations into coherent summaries.

Let me tell you a secret: I hate writing. Ironic, right? Here I am starting a blog. But that's exactly why I was so desperate to find a better way to handle all those meeting notes. When I got access to that AI model, something clicked. While everyone else was debating whether AI was the future, I was thinking, "Can this thing help me escape note-taking hell?"

The first time I fed a Zoom transcript into the model and watched it spit out a perfect meeting summary - with action items, owner assignments, and key points all neatly organized - I literally pumped my fist in the air. What used to eat up my entire afternoon now took minutes. It felt like magic.

I couldn't shut up about it. I mean, imagine discovering a secret superpower and trying to keep it to yourself. Impossible. Before I knew it, I was running informal "AI office hours" from my desk, showing anyone who'd listen how to use these tools. People would stop by with their laptops, and we'd geek out over prompt engineering and use cases. It was like being a kid with a cool new toy, except this toy could actually make our work lives better.

Word got around. You know how it goes - you show one person a productivity hack, they tell their manager, their manager mentions it to someone else, and suddenly you're getting meeting invites from people you've never met. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in rooms with leaders from across the company, talking about how we could scale this thing up.

That's when it hit me: this wasn't just about making my life easier anymore. We were looking at potentially transforming how our entire company worked. Talk about pressure! We had to figure out how to make AI work in an enterprise setting - dealing with security teams (who rightfully eye every new tech with suspicion), considering integration with our existing tools, and making sure whatever we did wouldn't break the bank or expose sensitive data.

We explored everything - GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, specialized tools like Glean. Each had its moments of "this is amazing!" and "oh wait, but what about..." Having people from different departments in these discussions was eye-opening. HR saw different possibilities than Development, who saw different things than Security. It was like watching everyone discover their own version of that fist-pump moment I had with my meeting notes.

Here's what I've learned so far on this wild ride:

  • Start with something that bugs you personally. That passion for solving a real problem is contagious.
  • Security isn't sexy, but it's everything in enterprise. Make friends with your security team early.
  • Share what you learn. Those informal office hours? They created more champions than any official training could have.
  • Listen to everyone. That person from HR might see a use case you never imagined.
  • Keep it real. Focus on actual problems, not sci-fi possibilities.

I'm still figuring this out as I go. Some days I feel like I'm barely keeping up with the pace of change. But that's what makes it exciting - we're all learning together, trying to figure out how to make this technology work in the real world, with real constraints and real people.

There's so much more to share about this journey - the wins, the face-palm moments, the unexpected discoveries. But for now, I'll leave you with this: if you're just starting to explore AI in your organization, start with something that matters to you personally. That enthusiasm is what turns experiments into innovations.

More stories coming soon. And yes, I used AI to help write this post. Ironically, it's helping me do the thing I hate most - writing. Life's funny like that.