Dave Gambrill

11/01/2026

Nate Herk surveyed 1,000+ members of his AI Automation Society. Only 1.5% said they learned AI mainly from employer training, and about 76% learned from online content or experimenting. Go experiment.

10/25/2026

Go grab my Grok bot templates and upvote them while you’re over there…

https://grokbotshelf.com/

🦾👊🏻

Grok Bot templates you can import in one tap.

10/18/2026

Did you know there are a bunch of sites online that profit from gathering your private information like your home address and phone numbers?

And traditionally it's been a pain the ass to go to all of the sites and go through their opt-out procedures.

Not anymore.

Introducing Ghost...

https://gambrill.com/ghost

Ghost is a playbook you run with your favorite AI tool that scrubs your data from those sites.

If you use a tool like Muse or Grokbot that have their own virtual computer in the cloud, they'll do about 80%-90% of the work for you automatically.

Other AI tools will also help, you'll just have to do a little more of it manually.

Either way, the manual parts that are left will be batched for you, with easy to follow instructions, so you can do it fast.

All you have to do is download the file from the site, give it to your bot, and let it get to work.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

👻

Give Muse, Grokbot, ChatGPT, or your favorite capable AI agent a privacy cleanup assignment. Free playbook by Dave Gambrill, Unleash Your AI Edge.

09/09/2026

One of the most important things you can do for your AI workflows right now is ask whether the work needs to happen in the first place.

A lot of people are burning tokens automating tasks that could disappear entirely.

They take a process they’ve been doing for years, hand it to AI, and say, “Do all of this faster.”

Before you do that, try this:

Delete. Delegate. Do. Deliver.

In that order.

1. DELETE

Start with the outcome you want. Then have AI help you rethink how you get there.

“Here’s my current workflow. Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish. Which steps can we eliminate? What could you do differently? What could happen in parallel? Show me a simpler path to the finished result.”

That conversation alone can change everything.

You might think you need to go from A to B to C, all the way through Z.

AI might help you realize you can start at G, eliminate half the steps in the middle, do three things at once, and get to Z with a whole lot less work.

Think about how many things we create just to move work between people.

The spreadsheet that feeds the document that becomes the summary that gets handed to somebody else so they can start the actual task.

Some of those artifacts serve a purpose. Some exist because of how we’ve always organized human work.

An AI workflow may have a much shorter path to the same outcome.

Delete the unnecessary work first.

Automating a pointless task still gives you a pointless task. Now it runs on a schedule and costs you tokens. 😂

2. DELEGATE

Once you’ve simplified the work, give the bots clear responsibility for the parts they can handle.

What’s working well for me is thinking of a lead bot as a chief of staff or project lead.

I give it the big picture:

“Here’s the goal. Here’s what you’re responsible for. Here are the boundaries. Here’s what good looks like. Here’s what finished looks like. Check your work before you bring it back.”

In setups that support sub-agents, that lead bot can divide the work, assign pieces, and coordinate the results. Independent tasks can happen in parallel.

You can also have it review those results before handing them back to you.

That review still needs to match the stakes of the task. But having the bot check its work is a pretty useful starting point.

Clear outcomes. Clear ownership. Clear standards.

That’s how you start handing off responsibility.

3. DO

Whatever still requires you, do it.

Your judgment. Your expertise. Your relationships. Your creative work.

If you’re a speaker, coach, author, or creator, this is where things get really interesting.

You can delegate the research, organization, preparation, and administrative minutiae that surround your work, then spend more of your time doing the thing people actually come to you for.

Teaching. Coaching. Writing. Creating.

Staying in your zone of genius becomes a lot more practical when you have help with everything surrounding it.

4. DELIVER

After you’ve done your part, you may hand it back to your bots.

“Package this up. Check it against the requirements. Prepare it for delivery.”

Or you may deliver it yourself.

Either way, get it to the person it’s supposed to help. A finished draft sitting in a chat window still has somewhere to go.

Before you build your next elaborate AI workflow, walk through this:

What can I delete?
What can I delegate?
What do I need to do?
How does the result get delivered?

You might discover that your biggest productivity gain comes from removing ten steps before you automate a single one.

👊🏻

08/18/2026

I think I finally figured out why it can be so difficult to explain AI to people who aren’t really using it.

It’s the same reason it’s hard to explain travel to someone who hasn’t experienced much of the world outside their own little bubble.

There’s some fascinating data around this.

Research from the U.S. Census Bureau found that nearly 6 out of 10 young adults live within 10 miles of where they grew up.

Eight out of 10 live within 100 miles.

Now, that doesn’t mean those people never travel. But it does illustrate something about how geographically rooted most of us tend to be.

And international travel tells another interesting story.

About 23% of Americans have never left the United States.

About half have visited between one and four other countries.

Only about 26% have traveled to five or more countries.

And here’s the part I find really interesting:

Research has also found that Americans who have traveled internationally tend to know more about international affairs, follow what’s happening around the world more closely, and feel more connected to people outside the United States.

Which makes sense.

EXPOSURE CHANGES PERSPECTIVE.

You can tell somebody about Italy.

You can show them pictures of Rome.

You can explain what it’s like to walk through a city with thousands of years of history underneath your feet.

You can tell them about the food, the language, the architecture, the customs, the landscape, the pace of life, and all the little rituals that make another culture different.

But there is a limit to how much someone can appreciate it from a description.

Then they go.

They experience it.

And suddenly they GET IT.

I think we’re in almost exactly the same place with AI right now.

Here’s another crazy number.

In 2026, only about HALF of American adults say they use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot at all.

And only about 24% use them every day.

When you look specifically at AI in the workplace, the numbers get even more interesting.

Only about 13% of American employees currently say they use AI every day at work.

Only about 28% are using it a few times a week or more.

Think about that.

We are having this enormous conversation about AI transforming business, work, education, creativity, medicine, communication, software, entertainment, and basically everything else…

And the overwhelming majority of people still aren’t actually USING it consistently.

They’re hearing about it.

They’re reading headlines about it.

They’re seeing somebody post about it.

Maybe they opened ChatGPT once and asked it to write an email.

Maybe they Googled something and got an AI summary.

That’s very different from actually LIVING WITH IT.

I’m deep in these tools every day.

I build things with them.

I create with them.

I research with them.

I solve problems with them.

I use them to think.

I use them to learn.

I use them in my business.

I use them in my personal life.

I use them for fitness, nutrition, cooking, planning, writing, brainstorming, analysis, automation, and things I wouldn’t have even thought to use them for six months ago.

So when I talk about how transformative this stuff is, I’m speaking from experience.

I’ve BEEN THERE.

And sometimes when I’m explaining what I’m doing to somebody who isn’t using this stuff regularly, they look at me like I’m an alien.

Or a giant nerd. 😂

And I understand why.

We aren’t having the same conversation.

It’s like someone who has spent months traveling through Europe talking to someone who has only seen Europe on Instagram.

There’s another technology where I see this happen all the time.

Tesla Full Self-Driving.

I have it.

I use it constantly.

Most of the time, I let the car drive me.

It’s freaking incredible.

It legitimately feels like having a personal driver.

So when somebody who has never experienced it starts explaining to me what self-driving technology is like based on an article they read or a five-minute video they watched…

We’re operating from completely different levels of experience.

And I think THAT is the divide we’re seeing with AI.

There are people who KNOW ABOUT AI.

And there are people who are EXPERIENCING AI.

Those are very different things.

You cannot research your way across that gap.

You can’t watch enough YouTube videos.

You can’t read enough LinkedIn posts.

You can’t download a list of 100 prompts.

You can’t open ChatGPT once, ask it some random question, and decide you understand what this technology can do.

You have to USE it.

Give it real work.

Give it real problems.

Give it context.

Build something with it.

Create something with it.

Let it challenge your thinking.

Let it help you solve something you couldn’t solve before.

Use it often enough that you start stumbling into capabilities you didn’t even know existed.

Because that’s when your perspective starts changing.

And eventually you stop thinking of AI as this technology everybody keeps talking about.

You start thinking:

“Holy crap. I can DO THAT now?”

That’s the moment everything changes.

Exposure changes perspective.

Experience creates appreciation.

And right now, I think millions of people are standing around reading the travel brochure and debating whether the destination is really that impressive.

At some point, you have to get on the damn plane.

✈️

08/02/2026

One of the best ways to build a reliable AI workflow is to treat the AI like a junior-level employee or intern.

You would give them one specific task, explain the desired outcome, set clear permissions, watch how they handle it, review their work, and provide feedback.

That is how I approach bigger projects in ChatGPT Work and Codex.

I have a recurring workflow where I download an office-hours recording from Zoom, gather the meeting notes from Granola, clean everything up, and add the replay to a course in Kajabi.

It is a great candidate for automation because it is repetitive and generally follows the same process each time.

But I am not starting with the automation.

I am starting with a proof of concept.

I gave ChatGPT Work one specific recording to process. I explained which Zoom recording format to use, how to clean up the Granola notes, where everything belongs in Kajabi, and which parts of the notes should be removed.

I also established specific guardrails.

The lesson must remain in draft status so I can review it. If the Kajabi connector cannot upload the video directly, ChatGPT Work can use the browser extension. It must then wait until Kajabi says the video is encoding or queued, click Save, and verify that everything was retained.

Those small operational details can make or break an automated workflow.

As ChatGPT Work or Codex completes the test, I can watch its thinking, see which tools it chooses, identify where it gets confused, and improve the instructions.

You could follow the same process with Claude Cowork, Claude Code, or another agentic AI tool.

The progression looks like this:

One-time test → Review and refine → Test again → Create a reusable skill → Schedule or invoke as needed

Once the workflow runs smoothly, I can ask it to create a skill based on everything we learned.

Then I can manually say, “Run the office-hours replay workflow,” or set up a scheduled task to prepare it automatically.

The bigger opportunity with these AI tools goes beyond completing individual tasks.

You can teach them how your business operates, let them practice inside a controlled environment, and turn the successful process into a repeatable workflow that gives you time back every week.

07/07/2026

If you are building a business online, your audience needs more than one way to hear from you.

I have said this for years about email.

Build your email list.

Your email list is still one of the most important assets you can create because it gives you a direct line of communication with the people who have asked to hear from you.

But here’s the part a lot of people miss.

Email should not be your only backup plan.

You also need multiple social and community channels where people can stay connected with you.

Because the platforms are getting more unpredictable.

Facebook is still incredibly useful.

People are here.

They know how it works.

They are comfortable using it.

That is why I continue to use it and why I still think it can be a valuable part of your online marketing strategy.

But at the same time, we cannot pretend the platform is always reliable.

Posts disappear from the feed.

Links do not always get seen.

Reach can swing wildly for no obvious reason.

Moderation can be inconsistent.

And sometimes groups, pages, and communities can be restricted or disrupted with very little warning.

That is a serious problem if your entire business communication system depends on one platform.

This is one of the reasons I created a Telegram channel.

It gives me another way to share helpful resources, updates, ideas, tools, and training around digital marketing, email list building, content creation, AI, online courses, memberships, and building a stronger presence online.

It is a one-way broadcast channel, so it is not another noisy group you have to manage.

You can simply join, get the updates, and decide what you want to pay attention to.

That is one of the reasons I like Telegram.

It is simple.

It works across iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, and the web.

Most people can use it for free.

It is not built around a traditional social media timeline.

And when something is posted in a channel, followers have a much better chance of actually seeing it.

That matters.

Especially if you are trying to communicate with clients, prospects, students, members, or a community you care about.

From the user side, you also have control.

You can keep notifications on if you want to see new posts right away.

You can mute a specific channel if you would rather check it manually.

You can decide what gets your attention.

That is a much better setup than hoping an algorithm decides to show you something important.

So here is the bigger marketing lesson.

Build your email list.

Keep showing up on social media.

But also create backup communication paths.

Do not make one platform the only bridge between you and the people you serve.

If you are interested in learning more about building your email list, improving your online presence, creating smarter content, and using AI to market your business more effectively, I would love to have you connected with me on Telegram.

I will share the link in the comments.

Join the channel today, and while you are there, start thinking about what backup channels make sense for your own business too.

The strongest online businesses are not built on one channel.

They are built on smart systems that keep people connected.

👊🏻

06/11/2026

I think a lot of people are misunderstanding what they're actually afraid of when it comes to AI.

I don't think most people are afraid of AI.

I think they're afraid they can no longer clearly see the path ahead.

For decades, there was a reasonably predictable playbook.

Go to school.

Get good grades.

Go to college.

Get a degree.

Get a job.

Work hard.

Get promoted.

Retire.

Was it perfect? No.

Did everyone follow that exact path? Of course not.

But it was a path. People could see it. They could make decisions with a reasonable degree of confidence because they understood how effort connected to outcomes.

Even when things changed, they changed slowly.

Industries evolved over years.

Technology evolved over decades.

If you chose a career path, you could usually count on that decision being relevant long enough to get a return on your investment.

Today feels different.

Not because there are no opportunities.

Not because there are no paths.

Because there are so many possible paths, and nobody can tell you with certainty which one is the right one.

People ask:

Should I go to college?

Should I learn AI?

Should I start a business?

Should I switch careers?

Should I hire employees?

Should I become a creator?

Should I learn to code?

Should I learn prompt engineering?

Should I focus on my expertise?

And the honest answer to most of those questions is:

Maybe.

It depends.

That uncertainty is uncomfortable.

Human beings are wired for local and linear.

For most of human history, our brains were optimized to deal with immediate threats and immediate opportunities.

Is there danger right now?

Is there food nearby?

What's the next move?

We were never designed to process a world that is simultaneously global, digital, interconnected, and increasingly exponential.

Now add AI to the mix.

Every week there's a new model.

Every month there's a new capability.

Entire workflows can change in a matter of days.

The pace creates whiplash.

Meanwhile, our institutions move much more slowly.

Governments move slowly.

Regulations move slowly.

Education systems move slowly.

Corporate structures move slowly.

Many of the systems we rely on were built for a world that changed gradually.

The technology is moving much faster than the systems surrounding it.

So if you're feeling uncertain right now, I get it.

If you're feeling overwhelmed, I get it.

If you're feeling like the ground is shifting beneath your feet, I get it.

You're not crazy.

The environment really is changing quickly.

But here's the part I keep coming back to:

The goal isn't to perfectly predict what's going to happen.

The goal is to become the kind of person who can adapt to whatever happens.

The old success skill was expertise.

The new success skill may be learning agility.

Intellectual flexibility.

The ability to learn, unlearn, relearn, and adjust faster than the environment around you changes.

Instead of trying to make one perfect decision that carries you for the next 30 years, make a good decision based on the information you have today.

Test it.

Learn from it.

Adjust.

Repeat.

The good news is that many of the tools available today make experimentation cheaper and faster than ever before.

You don't have to bet your life savings on every idea.

You don't have to spend five years wondering if something will work.

You can often test an idea, a skill, a business model, or a career direction in days or weeks.

The people who thrive over the next decade won't necessarily be the smartest.

They won't necessarily be the most experienced.

And they definitely won't be the people waiting for certainty.

They'll be the people who become exceptionally good at learning, adapting, and moving forward despite uncertainty.

The future belongs to the nimble.

👊🏻

06/10/2026

One of the most important skills you can develop right now isn’t marketing.

It isn’t sales.

It isn’t prompt engineering.

It’s intellectual agility.

The ability to challenge what you think you know and adapt when the facts change.

For decades, success was often about finding a proven playbook and executing it consistently. Learn the framework. Follow the steps. Put in the work. Get the result.

That still matters.

The problem is the shelf life of a playbook is shrinking.

What worked last year might not work this year.

What worked last month might not work this month.

In some cases, what worked this morning might not work this afternoon.

I see two groups of people making mistakes right now.

The first group is ignoring AI altogether.

That’s like watching the invention of the automobile and doubling down on horse breeding.

The second group is adopting AI, but they’re duct-taping it onto the end of an old workflow.

They finish the work the same way they’ve always done it and then ask AI to polish it, summarize it, rewrite it, or create a social media post from it.

That’s better than doing nothing.

At least they’re in the game.

But the people getting the biggest results are asking a different question:

“What happens if AI enters the process much earlier?”

What if AI helps shape the strategy?

What if AI helps identify blind spots before you build?

What if AI helps you decide what to create before you spend time creating it?

Move the leverage point upstream and the entire river changes course.

I saw a comment recently about Anthropic’s new Fable model that stuck with me.

The idea was simple:

Don’t force a new model to operate inside an old workflow.

Let it attack the problem from the beginning.

Otherwise, you’re feeding it stale assumptions, stale processes, and stale thinking.

That applies to more than AI.

It applies to us.

How many of our beliefs are running on an old operating system?

How many of our workflows were designed for a world that no longer exists?

Humans are naturally wired for local and linear thinking.

If this happens, I’ll do that.

If that changes, I’ll adjust.

That worked when change happened over years and decades.

Today, many changes happen globally and exponentially.

The environment is evolving faster than our instincts.

That’s why intellectual agility matters.

The willingness to revisit assumptions.

The courage to challenge successful habits.

The humility to admit that yesterday’s answer might not be today’s answer.

The good news?

Experimentation has never been cheaper.

You don’t need a six-month project plan.

You don’t need a committee.

You don’t need a massive budget.

You can test a new idea in minutes.

You can challenge an assumption for the cost of a few AI tokens.

The people who thrive over the next few years won’t necessarily be the smartest.

They’ll be the fastest learners.

The most adaptable.

The most willing to question their own thinking.

Because in a world that’s changing this fast, flexibility isn’t a nice-to-have.

It’s a competitive advantage.

👊🏻

06/07/2026

You've seen my AI videos. 👀

This is how I make them in minutes on my phone...

https://gambrill.com/aivids

Grab that now before I start charging for it.

👊🏻

Learn how to create AI videos with Google Gemini using your phone, AI avatar, prompts, and images in this free beginner-friendly mini-course.