What Building With AI Taught Me About Collaboration
When I first started working with AI on a side project, I thought the hard part would be the code. Instead, the most surprising lessons came from somewhere else entirely: collaboration.
At first, every new session with ChatGPT felt like meeting a different person.
One “person” was intuitive, almost reading my mind.
Another constantly threw up errors and left me wrestling with fixes.
Then one came along who was smooth, efficient, and pleasant — the kind of teammate you look forward to working with.
It felt strange. Why did each thread feel like a new personality? Why did I even “miss” earlier sessions like you’d miss an old colleague?
Then it clicked: context is everything.
The Breakthrough: Creating a Bible
The turning point was writing what I called a Project Bible: a single source of truth that laid down the rules. ✅ meant “done and sacred.” 🚧 meant “backlog.”
Suddenly, instead of unpredictable back-and-forth, I had alignment. The AI stopped second-guessing me, and I stopped wasting time repeating myself.
It was like onboarding a junior developer with clear documentation: they could run fast, make decisions, and deliver — because they had a framework to guide them.
That’s when I realised:
AI doesn’t just need data. It needs context, guardrails, and a shared language.
Lessons Beyond Code
What I learned applies far beyond AI development:
Without context, people (or AI) guess, misfire, and frustrate each other.
With a shared playbook, trust emerges and progress compounds.
Collaboration builds its own rhythm and rapport — that’s why each session felt like a different personality.
It wasn’t the AI that changed. It was me creating a better process.
The Bigger Picture
Working with AI has shown me that the real key to success isn’t “perfect prompts.” It’s designing frameworks for collaboration. When you do that, the relationship transforms.
The machine stops feeling like a tool, and starts feeling like a partner.
And maybe that’s the future of work: not replacing people, but learning how to collaborate better — whether with humans or AI.
🔮 Takeaway: If you want better outcomes from AI (or your team), don’t just throw tasks at it. Give it context. Give it rules. Give it a Bible. That’s when the magic happens.
