Published
What it cannot do
The honest list. Worth reading before you spend money on anything in this field, including on us.
What it cannot do
It cannot be relied on for facts it was not given
Ask about your county's zoning rules, a specific grant deadline, or what a statute says, and you will often receive a fluent, wrong answer. Not always — but often enough that you cannot use it as a source. It can help you understand a document you supply. It cannot be the document.
What it cannot do
It cannot fix a problem that is not an information problem
This one matters more than any other, and it is the reason a great deal of money gets wasted.
If your organisation is underfunded, understaffed, or run by people who are exhausted, no tool addresses that. AI can reduce the documentation burden on a team of three. It cannot make a team of three into a team of six, and any pitch implying otherwise is asking you to pay for a feeling.
- Chronic underfunding — structural, not technical
- Wages that do not hold staff — structural
- Burnout rooted in inadequate staffing — structural
- Inequitable access to capital — structural
What you carry
It cannot carry judgement, and it cannot carry blame
When an assisted decision harms someone, the accountability sits with the organisation that deployed it. “The system flagged it” is not a defence anyone will accept, and it should not be.
What belongs to you
It cannot keep a confidence
Anything typed into a third-party tool has left your control. Some vendors promise not to train on it; those promises vary by plan, change without much fanfare, and are not the same as the information never having left.
Decide what may never be typed, write that list down, and give it to everyone on your team.