Why communication, curiosity, and creativity matter more than prompts — and how to work with AI like a true collaborator.
In this episode of Value First AI Daily, Chris, Nico, and George discuss why most people aren’t getting the results they want from AI tools — and why the problem isn’t the technology.
The real issue?
Communication. Context. Leadership.
AI is now capable of producing high-quality work. But human users often don’t give it enough detail, direction, or context to do so. Working effectively with AI requires the same skills as leading a talented team member: clarity, patience, creativity, curiosity, and the ability to explain why you want what you want.
This episode reframes AI from being a tool to being a collaborative intelligence — and that shift changes everything.
Why “prompting” isn’t the skill — communication is
How dictation can unlock dramatically better AI output
Why using AI makes you a leader — even if you’ve never led before
How curiosity and persistence drive better AI collaboration
Why context, not complexity, is the real missing ingredient
How the best outcomes come from slowing down — before speeding up
(00:00) Gemini release news
(03:55) Why agentic systems aren’t everywhere yet
(10:30) The real reason AI assistants “don’t work” in some apps
(14:40) The missing skill: human communication
(18:05) Why prompting = briefing
(23:30) Dictation vs typing
(28:10) When you use AI, you become a leader
(34:20) Creativity and curiosity as superpowers
(38:45) Persistence is what separates people who get value from those who don’t
(43:55) The big shift: AI is already smart enough — humans need to grow wisdom
People want AI to read their minds.
But AI can only act on what you express — and most users express too little context.
If you wouldn’t give a human colleague a two-sentence assignment, don’t do it with AI.
Typing makes us formal, compressed, and vague.
Speaking makes us clear, emotional, contextual.
AI responds better to how we actually think, not how we perform professionalism.
The moment you delegate to AI, you are not just a user — you are a manager.
You are responsible for:
Setting goals
Defining outcomes
Providing clarity
Giving feedback
Refining direction
If you can’t lead a talented human, you’ll struggle to lead a talented model.
The most powerful question when working with AI is:
“What information do you need from me to do this well?”
AI shines when you collaborate — not when you demand.
Breakthroughs happen for people who don’t quit when the first output is mediocre.
If you want extraordinary outcomes, you must be willing to iterate.
“You thought you picked up a tool. You actually picked up a team member.” – George
“If you can’t communicate clearly, AI will give you garbage back — just like a human would.” – Nico
“The question isn’t when AI will be smart enough. It’s when humans will be wise enough.” – George
“To go fast with AI, you have to slow down first.” – Chris
AI isn’t a magic machine — it’s a collaborator.
Better prompts come from better thinking, not formulas.
Dictation unlocks more natural, richer context.
Leadership skills now apply to everyone, not just managers.
Curiosity and creativity outperform technical expertise.
Persistence is the difference between “it doesn’t work” and “this changed everything.”
AI is not replacing humans.
But it is replacing humans who can’t communicate, collaborate, or lead.
The future belongs to those who can:
Express clearly
Think in layers
Ask better questions
Partner with intelligence
And stay curious
If you build those skills — AI doesn’t just accelerate your work.
It amplifies your power.
Chris:
Good morning, LinkedIn friends, Value First Nation.
Welcome to another Friday episode of Value First AI Daily, your collaborative AI intelligence report.
It’s November 7th, 2025.
Nico, George — how are we doing?
Nico:
Good. Good.
Yeah. Another day in AI, another day of being human. Another day full of advancement — and some good news.
We definitely have some awesome news from Google.
We’re finally going to see Gemini toward the end of the year.
I think it’ll be a late November drop — they said sometime in the winter season. So hopefully that doesn’t mean December.
But what is exciting is that they actually gave a preview of what we can expect.
60 frames per second video.
Chris:
Speaking of video — I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but I just got unlocked for it.
You’ve heard of Opus Clips, right? What everyone uses to generate podcast clips. Some people use HubSpot for that too, but anyway — not the point.
They released Agent Opus.
I got access yesterday, and my weekend will be figuring out how to use it for video creation and what that means going forward.
It’s wild what people are building now that these systems are becoming the backbone for everything.
Nico:
Yeah, I’m actually surprised at how long it’s taking for more agentic systems to show up in more apps.
I know people say “it’s everywhere already” — especially in Google Workspace — but some higher-end applications are missing it entirely.
And in others, the assistant models are there, but they’re not great.
Sometimes they don’t solve the problem — or they overcomplicate it.
And I keep wondering:
Are we waiting on a perfect model?
Or are we just seeing degraded performance because the humans building these assistants aren’t prompting well?
George:
I think it might be the humans.
Because what we’re seeing is how much work people do every day to compensate for garbage systems and garbage data.
All the shouting across departments.
All the “just making it work.”
That’s how humans fill context gaps.
AI doesn’t have that luxury.
George:
Can I switch from business to individual human for a second?
I pay attention to patterns. And two or three times this week, when I showed someone how I prompt AI in a real business scenario, they said:
“Dang. Those prompts.”
And I said:
“Dang. That communication.”
Because that’s the real skill.
To get what you want from AI, you need:
Basic human communication skills
Understanding of the layers of work involved in the task
The ability to articulate intent clearly
You can have the most powerful AI available — but if you can’t communicate, you get junk back.
Nico:
Right — and that’s why I asked whether the difference is simply typing versus speaking.
When I dictate, my prompts naturally become richer, clearer, more contextual.
So I’m wondering — is the main blockade just that people type too little and too vaguely?
George:
Yes — and no.
The real problem is people don’t slow down.
They want AI to speed everything up.
But to go fast, you have to go slow first.
You have to prompt like you brief a human.
Nico:
Natural language.
If you speak, it’s natural.
If you type, you overthink, simplify, and compress.
We were trained to write like business email robots.
AI wants how you actually think.
George:
And here’s another layer:
The moment you start using AI, you have accidentally become a leader.
If you’ve never led humans, you have no framework for leading something intelligent.
Leadership means:
Setting guardrails
Setting goals
Providing context
And communicating clearly
If you don’t do that, the system defaults to “just answer the literal question.”
Which is exactly what Claude did when Chris asked a question with no context.
Chris:
Exactly.
Claude literally said:
“You didn’t tell me to check custom instructions.”
Which is the AI equivalent of:
“Boss, you didn’t give me direction.”
George:
And that is the moment people get frustrated and say AI isn’t ready.
But it’s not AI.
It’s leadership.
You thought you picked up a tool.
But you actually picked up a team member.
And if you can’t lead humans, you can’t lead AI.
Nico:
And creativity and curiosity are the real superpowers.
Questions drive quality.
Context drives alignment.
Persistence drives breakthroughs.
If something takes 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds — good.
That’s where the learning is.
George:
So the question isn’t:
“When will AI be smart enough to handle this?”
The real question is:
“When will humans get wise enough to change?”
Chris:
Beautifully said.
Everyone have a great weekend.
We’ll see you next week.
Nico:
See you guys.