If You Use AI at Work and Nobody Hears It, Did It Really Happen?
We’ve all heard the old adage: “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
In 2026, we have a new version for the professional world: “If you’re 10x more efficient because of AI, but your team doesn’t know how you’re doing it, are you actually a leader?”
The Rise of the “Closet” AI User
There’s a silent trend happening in Slack channels and Jira tickets. Engineers, analysts, and managers are using LLMs to solve complex problems in minutes instead of hours. But many are doing it in secret.
Maybe it’s impostor syndrome—the fear that “if they knew I used AI, they’d think I’m cheating.” Or maybe it’s the fear of being replaced.
But here’s the reality: Hiding your AI workflows doesn’t make you safer; it just makes your team slower.
AI is a Team Sport
If you’ve figured out a prompt sequence that perfectly refactors legacy code, or a workflow that summarizes messy stakeholder requirements into actionable tickets, you’ve discovered a superpower.
When you keep that superpower to yourself, you’re creating a bottleneck. The “rising tide” of AI only lifts all boats if the person with the tide-machine actually turns it on for everyone.
True evangelism isn’t just about using the tool; it’s about narrating the process.
How to Narrate Your AI Usage (Without Being “That Guy”)
You don’t need to be an “AI Influencer” to help your team. You just need to be transparent:
- Share the Prompt, Not Just the Output: Next time you share a solution, drop the prompt you used in the comments. Let others see the “logic” behind the machine.
- Build a Prompt Library: Start a shared doc or Wiki for your team. “Prompts that actually work for our codebase.”
The Narrator’s Advantage
When you talk about how you use AI, you aren’t admitting you’re “lazy.” You’re demonstrating that you are an architect of efficiency. You become the person who doesn’t just do the work, but defines how the work gets done in this new era.
So, the next time you use AI to crush a task, don’t let it be a tree falling in a silent forest. Make some noise. Share the workflow. Lift the team.