A Brussels café became my daily AI workbench.

I have a familiar corner in a Brussels café where I do some of my clearest thinking. I am a solo consultant, so the workday moves between research, conversations, writing, and the decisions that connect them. AI did not arrive as a grand transformation project. It became useful when I started bringing it into those ordinary transitions.

My first change was to stop treating every task as a blank page. Before a client conversation, I can lay out the context I am allowed to share and ask an AI assistant to organise my questions or point out gaps in my thinking. I still decide what matters and what to ask. The tool gives me a second pass before I walk into the conversation.

From blank page to a useful first draft

After a conversation, I work from notes with identifying details removed. I might ask for a clear summary, a list of open questions, or a first structure for a follow-up. The result is material to review, not a message I send untouched. I check the meaning, add the details that only I know, and make sure the tone sounds like me.

The same pattern helps with research and proposals. I can ask for a topic to be broken into questions, compare possible outlines, or turn scattered thoughts into a draft I can challenge. That changes the starting point: instead of waiting for the perfect sentence, I have something visible to edit.

The work that stays mine

Using AI every day has made my process more deliberate, not more automatic. I am clearer about the question I am asking, and I notice sooner when an answer is vague or too confident. I also keep judgement, client relationships, and final recommendations in my hands.

That boundary matters. I do not put confidential client information into a general AI tool. I remove or generalise details before using notes, and I verify claims against sources before relying on them. AI can help me think through the work; it cannot take responsibility for it.

A café routine, not another project

At the café, my rhythm is simple: decide what I need to think through, use AI to explore or shape it, then step back and make the call myself. Some days that means preparing questions. Other days it means finding a better structure for a piece of writing or checking what I have overlooked.

The change is qualitative but noticeable in the way the day feels. Less of the work begins with staring at an empty page; more of it begins with a draft, a set of options, or a sharper question. I spend my attention reviewing and deciding instead of asking one tool to do the whole job.

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Read more practical notes on the PartnerWithAI blog.