The Confidence Gap
You're using AI but are you actually getting the most from it?
I had a conversation a few weeks ago that I haven’t stopped thinking about…
An executive assistant I’ve been working with in 1:1 coaching - 12 years in the role, brilliant at their job, trusted completely by their executive - told me they’d been going back over AI outputs and rewriting them before sending. Not because the outputs were wrong. Because they didn’t feel like they could put their name on something they hadn’t written themselves.
It wasn’t fear of the tool- It was something more uncomfortable than that. A worry about what using it said about them. I am pretty sure they’re not the only one.
The ASAP 2026 State of the Profession report put a number on this. 76.9% of administrative professionals are now using AI in their daily work, a figure that has nearly tripled in two years. But only 47.2% feel confident actually integrating it into how they work.
People in this profession built their reputations on getting things right. On being the person whose name on something meant it was solid, thought-through, and worth reading. And now there’s a tool that produces something passable in thirty seconds, and it’s genuinely hard to know where that leaves the thing you spent years building.
So people use it a bit. Then question it… then sometimes rewrite it by hand anyway.
I’ve been there too by the way! Using AI just enough to feel like you’re keeping up but not enough to trust what comes back is one of the most draining places to be. And it’s not protecting your reputation… It’s just adding work.
The real question I ask myself isn’t whether to use it - most people already are. It’s what using it well looks like when you care about the quality of what goes out under your name.
📌 Paid subscribers get 3 deeper dives:
1. Why the confidence isn’t coming - the real reason most assistants feel uncertain about AI even after months of using it, and what actually closes that gap. It’s not more prompts.
2. The quality check that changes everything - a four-question process for evaluating any AI output before it leaves your hands. Built for people who care about their reputation.
3. From user to authority - what it looks like when you stop using AI defensively and start using it on behalf of the business. The career conversation this opens, and how to have it.
Plus: For Leaders & EA Managers - why the confidence gap on your team is partly yours to close, and the one question worth asking.
