Guest post by Daniel Rellaford, CEO, The Center for The Empowerment Dynamic
Every day, hundreds of millions of people sit down with an AI and ask it what to do. Not to write an email or summarize a report. To decide. Whether to take the job. How to handle the conflict. What to say to the person they’ve hurt. In OpenAI’s 2025 study of how people actually use ChatGPT, the single largest category wasn’t writing or coding. It was asking for guidance — nearly half of all messages.
There’s a line from The Power of TED* that I love:
“Human beings must create; it’s hard-wired. The reality is this: you cannot not create! The question is, are you creating consciously or sleepwalking through your life, simply reacting to what comes at you?”
The arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a generation defining event. With it, we can create better and faster than we ever have before. But it can also feel like the opposite is happening.
For many, AI brings deep uncertainty and fear. The ground keeps shifting. New models are released. A sense sets in that we are being left behind and that this is just happening to us.
In a recent survey of Americans, 70% of respondents said AI is coming into their lives whether they want it or not. 15% said “people like me can shape how much AI is part of our lives.” (Source: Americans on AI).
As I have explored these tools and built workflows, apps, and automations in AI -- I’ve become fascinated by where AI and The Empowerment Dynamic (TED*) meet. I believe that TED* can help us navigate this seismic change and claim our power to choose our response.
How are you relating to AI?
The Drama Triangle is a helpful lens for examining how we may be relating to AI. You may recognize some of these thoughts: - I’m the Victim. Everything around AI is moving too fast. I’m getting left behind. I don’t know where to start - AI is the Persecutor. AI is displacing jobs and it’s coming for mine. The companies creating these models are concerned with profits over ethics and aren’t thinking about long-term consequences. - AI is the Rescuer. AI can do everything for me - I don’t even need to think about what to say anymore. AI can think through my important decisions. It knows better than I do.
Each of these may feel true sometimes, but ultimately each is a way of relinquishing our choice. The greatest risk with AI isn’t the technology, it’s what happens when we lose our sense of agency with it.
The Empowerment Dynamic as Challenger
TED* acts as a challenger to our tendency to adopt a victim orientation. It encourages us to take responsibility and understand where our power lies, even in challenging circumstances that feel outside of our control.
Here are five principles for relating to AI as a Creator. The first three are about how we relate to AI and the last two are about how we create with it.
Remember you are a Creator. AI’s intelligence is exactly what the name says: artificial. Ours is native. We were born to make things, and that capacity doesn’t rise or fall with the next model release. You are a Creator. AI is not.
Set your intention before you prompt. Before you type a word, ask what you actually want here — what you’re trying to say, and what a good outcome looks like. A prompt written from a clear intention pulls something specific out of the tool. A prompt written to skip the thinking gives you ‘AI slop.’
Prioritize who you’re becoming when you prompt. Decide, on purpose, which tasks you keep and which you hand off. The test is simple: if doing it yourself makes you better, wiser, more thoughtful, more human, then do it yourself — even if it’s slower and less polished. The measure isn’t the output. It’s who you become by doing it.
Build it to mirror your uniqueness. Give AI your context — your voice, your ideas, your way of seeing — so it builds as you, not a bland average of everyone. It’s a learnable skill, and there are many tools and courses to learn.
Automate the backend so you can be more present. The one thing AI can’t replace is how we relate to each other. Its most optimistic promise is that it frees us from the backend so we can spend that time with people.
Come build with me
I’m hosting a webinar on Thursday, July 16 at 12pm Eastern. We’ll work through how to put these principles into practice, and then build something live — a Claude skill and a simple automation that you design yourself. You’ll leave with something real, and a clearer sense of your own footing. You can sign up at the link below. Hope to see you there.
To the Creator in you,
Daniel
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the defining issues in our time - it forces us to evaluate what is truly human and what is uniquely ours to do. We can either see AI as a persecutor or a challenger. Join our CEO Daniel on July 16 for a practical discussion and toolkit for being a Creator with AI.
Click the image below or scan the QR code to register!
Thank you. Love the TED quote to set the context.