AI Essentials #0 - Know your role

After you've been working with AI tools for a while, there are certain concepts that seem to come up again and again. When that has happened enough times, I realize that I need to try and understand what role a concept plays when building products, so I can make better decisions.

I'd been tracking these concepts in various places, including Claude chats and tasks, Markdown files and Skills. Then, I got some great feedback after the first three posts in the Learning with AI series, focused on:

  1. My setup, at a high level; and
  2. Overviews of important concepts and the roles they play while building.

That feedback, plus those various Claude chats and tasks, Markdown files and Skills, gave me the idea for the AI Essentials series. It will be narrower than Learning with AI. The latter is going to be more about bigger things I've done and learnt.

Just as with the Learning with AI series, there is no grand plan for the AI Essentials series. It will cover the roles of different concepts when building products, targeted at what I wish I'd known in February 2026.

Finally, as I mentioned in The Why for jeremycowcher.com, writing helps me learn too. I hope that after reading the series, you'll be able to look at these concepts and say "Know your role" (and I'll leave the second part of that out of this).

Thanks for reading,

Jeremy

This post is provided for general information, commentary and discussion purposes only. It is not legal, investing or other professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any errors or omissions are unintentional. The views expressed are those of the author in a personal capacity and do not represent the views of any employer, client, partner or affiliated organization. Generative AI tools were used to assist with research and editing.