Claude, Pork Ramen, and the Culture Gap
Forget Coldplay’s Kiss Cam drama – AI is the real office affair, everyone’s doing it, and no one’s talking about it.
Over the weekend, I tackled a red braised pork belly ramen recipe that took three days of prep and more steps than I could count.
So, naturally, I handed it over to Claude — my best friend, confidant, and all-around people-pleaser — and said:
Help me, please.
Claude turned chaos into order. Grouped the ingredients by store. Built me a timeline. Sorted all those steps into bite-sized bits.
Suddenly, I had a plan — and way less overwhelm.
Claude broke it down. Grouped ingredients by store. Built a timeline. And sorted all those steps into bite-sized bits.
Suddenly, I had a plan — and way less overwhelm.
On Sundays, Claude becomes my personal life coach and helps me plan my upcoming week.
- Summarise my week so I know where I need to be
- Organises school drop-offs/pick-ups/kids’ school sports, visits to the vet etc etc
- Schedules (theoretical) time for exercise.
- Plan my projects into chunkable bits.
It’s weirdly comforting. And wildly helpful. And it still shocks me how much I rely on this output.
The Silent AI Divide
Inside businesses, AI is a weird, whispered topic.
Some people use it daily.
Others experiment quietly.
And some pretend they’ve never touched it.
The tension isn’t just about adoption — it’s about secrecy and shame. If people can’t admit how they’re using AI, they’ll hide it, underuse it, or misuse it.
The Dark Side: When AI Goes Wrong
The Steven Bartlett x Simon Sinek conversation on The Diary of a CEO nailed this perfectly:
“We’re being sold the idea that AI will make everything better — but no one’s talking about what we lose when we remove friction, connection, and the very things that make us human.”
AI is powerful. But it’s also dangerously confident. Persuasive. Believable — even when it’s wrong.
The rush to automate risks losing the human glue: empathy, friction, connection.
Sinek’s point hit me hard: we need to build spaces where people can experiment with AI openly and thoughtfully — or risk replacing creativity with shortcuts that miss the point.
I brought Mark Byrne (co-founder of Headspring) into a power session with my clients, unpacking the messy reality of AI in marketing.
Mark’s take:
“AI isn’t a tool’s problem. It’s a culture problem.
And if teams don’t have the time or support to learn how to use it well, things can go sideways — fast.
Businesses can’t just hand over the tool and hope for the best. They need to create space for questions, weird prompts, and messy first tries. That’s how real capability is built.”
The 3 AI Culture Gaps I See in Teams
1. The Secret Users
People are already using AI — but they’re doing it in the shadows. They’re worried they’ll look lazy or get it “wrong,” so no one’s sharing what’s actually working. This secrecy kills collaboration and slows learning.
2. The Shiny-Tool Problem
Leaders think buying the tech = solving the problem. It doesn’t. Without time, training, and a safe space to experiment, AI stays underused — or worse, used badly.
3. The Creativity Drain
AI can make things faster, but it can also make them flatter. Teams risk losing the human spark — empathy, friction, connection — that makes great work stand out.
The Messy Middle
We’re in this strange limbo — between the curious and the cautious.
The empowered and the unsure.
The ones writing killer prompts — and the ones quietly copy-pasting behind closed tabs.
And the truth is:
AI is here. It’s usable. It’s helpful. But unless people feel safe to explore it — without shame or secrecy — they’ll hide it or avoid it. And that means missed value, wasted time, and a whole lot of “could’ve been easier” moments.
Your Next Move
So ask yourself (and your team):
Who’s openly using AI — and who’s pretending they’ve never heard of it?
If you’re leading a team and trying to navigate the messy middle of AI adoption, consider reaching out to Mark. It will be well worth your time.
