Pete Sena · May 12, 2026
I have run this workshop maybe forty times in the last eighteen months. Twelve operators around a long table. A 200-person company. Everyone in the room has an AI subscription, an opinion about MCP servers, and a deck somewhere that explains why their team is AI-forward.
I know exactly when the room is about to lie to me.
It is always around minute thirty. The bravado kicks in. Two people answer with something they read on LinkedIn last week dressed up as a workflow they actually use. The deck on the wall is fine. The coffee is still warm. Everyone is performing fluency for the founder paying my invoice, and the founder is performing back, and for a few minutes, nobody in the room is telling the truth about anything.
This particular day, the CEO did not wait for me to dig the truth out of his team. He leaned forward and did it for me.
You can spot the Mikes in the next workshop you sit in. They aren't the ones with the loudest opinions about which model is best.
What happened next is the difference between performing AI fluency and possessing it.
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