From Curiosity to Confidence: One Consultant's AI Journey
At a Glance
Client: Kristin, independent consultant specializing in organizational development and community engagement
Engagement: AI Accelerator (individualized AI capacity building)
Duration: 4.5 hours of intensive sessions + follow-up support
Core challenge: Kristin was genuinely curious about AI but couldn't move forward without expert guidance that respected her values and the sensitivity of her work.
Key outcome: A clear, bounded AI practice built around a single tool she trusts, and the confidence to keep exploring on her own terms.
When Kristin reached out, she wasn't resistant to AI. She wasn't dismissive. She was something that I think a lot of consultants in the social sector can relate to: genuinely curious, but unable to make a decision without having some expertise to lean on.
She'd read about AI. She knew colleagues who had made very different decisions about it (some all in, some firmly out). But for someone whose work involves sensitive community conversations, political considerations, and deep organizational trust, the stakes of getting it wrong felt real. It wasn't just about productivity. It was about whether AI could fit into a practice built on integrity.
I tangentially knew Kristin through my local AEA (American Evaluation Association) affiliate, and when she reached out, what I heard in our first conversations was someone who wanted to explore, but only if that exploration honored her values. If it didn't align, she wasn't going to force it. That told me everything I needed to know about how to design our time together.
What We Did
The AI Accelerator is 4.5 hours of intensive, hands-on work, but the shape of those hours is different for every person. With Kristin, I knew we needed to start with the landscape (what's out there, and what are the real trade-offs?) before narrowing to what made sense for her specific context.
We tested three different platforms together, exploring how each one handled the kinds of tasks Kristin actually does in her work. We talked through security and privacy in concrete terms (not abstract reassurance, but actual settings, actual policies, actual choices). We spent time on prompting techniques tailored to how she thinks and communicates. And we built a personalized toolkit with client-facing language, so she'd know how to talk about any proposed AI use with the people who trust her.
One thing I want to name about working with Kristin: she described herself as "a laggard" more than once. I'd push back on that. What I saw was someone being deeply intentional about a technology that most people are either rushing into or avoiding entirely. She asked hard questions. She wanted to understand the privacy implications before she'd experiment. She needed to feel confident in a tool before she'd bring it anywhere near her client work. That's not lagging. That's leading with integrity.
What Shifted
By the end of our engagement, Kristin had chosen Claude as her primary AI tool and established clear boundaries around how she'd use it. She was thoughtful about those boundaries (personal and volunteer work, yes; sensitive client work, not yet) and that felt right for where she was.
But the shift that matters most isn't the tool. It's what Kristin described as becoming "a better consumer" of AI information and application. She has more vocabulary now, more grounding, and more ability to interpret the changes that seem to come every week. She went from feeling like she couldn't evaluate what she was reading to being able to make her own informed judgments about what mattered and what was noise – and how she wanted to proceed in terms of use/non-use.
As she put it: "I would probably not be doing anything still" without this engagement.
What Made It Work
When I asked Kristin what she found most valuable, she didn't talk about the toolkit or the specific platform recommendations (though she valued those). She talked about the approach.
"You have a nuanced perspective. You meet your clients on a continuum. It wasn't like, 'I'm all in, I just need to find you the right combination of products and you'll be all in too.' It was more of a process, and I really appreciated having that degree of nuance."
She described the information I shared as "very well curated" (specific to her context, not generic) and named curiosity, humility, and confidence as the qualities that made our process work. That combination mattered to her because AI is evolving fast, and she needed a guide who was honest about what they didn't know while still being clear about what they did.
Kristin also gave me genuinely useful feedback about how to make this experience even better. She suggested pre-session prep assignments (what she called "forcing events") to help clients maximize session time, and noted that our agendas were sometimes ambitious for the time we had. I've taken both of those observations to heart, and they've shaped how I structure Accelerator engagements now.
The Bigger Picture
What I love about Kristin's story is that it doesn't end with a dramatic transformation. She didn't become an AI evangelist. She found a tool she trusts, within boundaries she set, and she's using it in ways that feel right to her. She's also spreading the word (she's mentioned my work to a number of colleagues, including an international coaching colleague) not because she's been asked to, but because the experience felt genuinely useful.
That's what values-aligned AI adoption actually looks like for a lot of consultants in this space. It's not a before-and-after. It's a process of finding your footing, building confidence, and knowing that you have someone you can reach out to when the next question comes up.
If you're a consultant or practitioner who's been on the fence about AI (curious but cautious, wanting to explore but needing it to align with how you actually work), that's exactly the space I love working in. Let's start a conversation.