Knowledge Work on Christa Burger

Good AI Should Leave You With Something Usable

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A good AI interaction should often leave behind something usable.

Not just an answer.

An artifact.

A checklist. A template. A decision log. A draft. A table. A playbook. A workflow. A reusable prompt. A meeting summary with owners.

The answer may help once.

The artifact helps again.

That is the difference between convenience and leverage.

I have become much more interested in asking:

“What should this become?”

A document? A template? A control? A process? A decision aid?

Invisible Work Is Still Work, and AI Can Help Reveal It

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of work does not look like work.

Remembering is work. Noticing is work. Checking is work. Sequencing is work. Following up is work. Reconciling is work.

Holding the whole thing in your head so nothing explodes is definitely work.

It is just badly marketed.

AI gives us a way to make that labor visible.

Once visible, it can be structured.

Once structured, it can be assigned.

Once assigned, it can be improved.

AI Is Best at the Work Before the Work

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most of the burden is not the task.

It is the work before the task.

Finding the context. Reading the history. Checking the numbers. Remembering what happened last time. Figuring out who needs to care. Deciding what decision is actually needed.

By the time you start the “real” work, half your energy has already been mugged in the parking lot.

AI is very good at this layer.

It can:

Gather context
Summarize history
Compare versions
Surface changes
Draft the starting point
Identify the decision

This is not glamorous.

Most Knowledge Work Is Recurring Work Pretending to Be One-Off

Wed, 06 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most work is recurring work pretending to be one-off.

The report. The summary. The review. The prep. The follow-up. The meeting notes. The risk explanation. The “can you just pull this together?”

We treat these as isolated events because nobody has time to stop and say:

“Wait. Why do we keep doing this from scratch?”

AI is very good at exposing that.

The first time, it helps.

The second time, it suggests a template.