Will AI become tomorrow’s spreadsheet?

AI en Excel

We did not need to understand Excel fully before starting to use it on a massive scale. AI will probably be no different. Only this time, the software is getting more scope to act on its own. Almost everyone who works in an office knows Excel. But how many people know Excel really well? My … Read more

Where are you choosing from? Reflections on sixteen conversations with vocational secondary-school students

JINC zien doen drage

A reflection on JINC Career Coach Recently, I had the opportunity to take part as a coach in JINC Carrière Coach, supporting four students in Dutch pre-vocational secondary education (vmbo) with their next educational choice. I had four sessions with each — sixteen conversations, sixteen moments in total. What stayed with me most was not … Read more

Trapped by our own convenience

Hotel California

Sometimes an old song lyric suddenly seems written for a time that did not yet exist. In 1976, the Eagles sang in Hotel California: “We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.” Almost fifty years before we would all be walking around with a smartphone in our hands. A coincidence, of course. By … Read more

What if the answer is no longer the difficult part?

AI in de praktijk.

Yesterday, my LLM tool made a small mistake. I had shared a photo of a handwritten reflection. The tool misread one word and then used that misreading in the reflection it wrote for me. I corrected it. The tool looked at the photo again and confidently offered a different interpretation. Wrong again. Nothing particularly dramatic. … Read more

AI can do the work. But what does that actually prove?

AI & CSA.

In an earlier article, I wrote about a question that becomes increasingly important as AI can act more independently: If AI can do something, what may it decide for itself? While continuing to build and test TiepMiep, the typing course I developed with AI’s help, a second question emerged: If AI has done the work, … Read more

As AI can do more on its own, what may it decide for itself?

AI generated image.

AI can do more and more. At first, we mainly asked a chatbot questions. Now AI can write texts, analyse information, program and increasingly carry out tasks independently. Such an AI system is often called an agent. That is useful. But it also raises an important question: If AI can do something, does that mean … Read more

When has working with AI actually gone well?

AI-generated image.

A good answer is not always a good outcome. I now work with AI almost every day. To write, build software, explore questions and sometimes simply examine my own thinking. The longer I work with it, the less satisfied I am with one simple measure: Was the answer good? Because that leaves a lot unsaid. … Read more

AI should not think for me

I now also use AI for daily self-reflection. I discuss my experiences of the day with a custom GPT: work, home, sport, things that went well and things that stayed with me. Not to tell me what to do, but to complement my thinking. To see connections, organise my thoughts and occasionally receive a question … Read more

How much does the AI do, and can you trust it?

In this series, AI Start — Understanding AI without a technical background, we explore step by step what AI is, how it works in everyday work processes and how professionals can use it consciously and responsibly. The conclusion in the previous part was simple: for someone using software, one question matters — is there AI … Read more

AI in the building process, or AI in the product?

In this series, AI Start — Understanding AI without a technical background, we explore step by step what AI is, how it works in everyday work processes and how professionals can use it consciously and responsibly. “We use AI.” You hear it more often, but it says little. AI can sit in two very different … Read more