Truth About Dyslexia podcast
3 AI Must Knows for Dyslexic and ADHD Entrepreneurs
AI is moving quickly, but not always in the way the loudest commentators suggest. I share three things I think dyslexic and ADHD entrepreneurs need to understand, from the real pace of change to using AI as part of your team without frying your brain.
Listen to this episode
3 AI Must Knows for Dyslexic and ADHD Entrepreneurs
What you will take from this episode
- AI will change a lot, but full adoption across everyday life is likely to take longer than the biggest predictions suggest.
- Some professional and information-based work will change, creating a window for people who learn to combine AI with real human problem-solving.
- Treating AI like a junior staff member helps make its practical use clearer: give it context, briefs, tools and time.
- AI can increase output while also increasing decision fatigue, so more work getting done does not automatically mean work feels easier.
- For dyslexic and ADHD entrepreneurs, experimenting with AI on a real task is more useful than waiting for the perfect plan.
AI can feel exciting, chaotic and oddly tiring all at once
I recorded this while a bookcase door was being installed for a new business idea I’m exploring in New Zealand. That probably tells you something about how my ADHD brain works. There’s usually a lot happening at once, and, strangely enough, a bit of chaos can sometimes feel calmer than a perfectly quiet room.
AI has that same feeling around it at the moment. There are huge promises, scary predictions, endless demos and plenty of people confidently explaining what happens next. My take is not that AI is unimportant. It’s that a few commonly repeated ideas are getting oversimplified.
For people like us who have dyslexia, ADHD or a very visual, idea-led way of thinking, it is worth getting clear on this. We can get swept up in the hype, or avoid it because it feels like one more complicated thing. Neither response is especially helpful.
If you want more conversations that start from real adult experience, have a look at the adult dyslexia podcast.
AI will change things, but the rollout will not happen overnight
The first idea I keep hearing is that AI is about to create an instantly abundant world where everything is solved. It may lead to some incredible outcomes over time. I can see why people are excited. But I think many commentators are underestimating how long it takes for a big shift to work its way into everyday life.
Think about the Industrial Revolution. Massive changes happened, but they happened over a long period. AI will likely move faster than that, especially in digital work, but a demo of a robot or an impressive new tool is not the same as that thing being normal, affordable, trusted and properly used everywhere.
I do think we will see a lot of change in the coming decade. But robots are not suddenly going to be collecting your kids from school in the next couple of years. Businesses, people, regulations and systems all take time to adapt. The speed can be both slow and fast depending on where you are looking.
That matters because it gives you room to act without panic. You do not need to throw away your life and chase every new release. But putting your head in the sand is not a great plan either. Learn enough to spot where AI could affect your work, your customers or the problems you care about solving.
Understanding how your brain works can be part of that, and you can start with the free adult dyslexia quiz if you are still joining the dots.
The future of work is changing, and there is a gap to explore
The second point is about information-based jobs. Yes, AI will affect work done by accountants, lawyers, consultants and other professionals. It will change how people research, write, analyse and give advice. That does not mean every person in those fields loses their job tomorrow, but it does mean the old model will be challenged.
A lot of people do not get access to professional advice as often as we assume. AI may start filling some of those gaps. That could happen through businesses using AI behind the scenes, people using it to understand questions before speaking to an expert, or completely new services built around a mix of AI and human support.
I have seen the value of a gap between markets in my own business life. When I built my web design agency, I worked with an amazing team in the Philippines, including people who have been with me for 10 to 15 years. The difference in labour costs between the Philippines and New Zealand meant I could create opportunities for people there, offer more cost-effective work at home and build something that paid the bills.
AI creates another version of that opportunity. I see a window over the next few years for people who can become useful middle people: someone who understands a customer’s messy real-world problem, knows how to use AI well, and turns the output into something genuinely helpful.
If your mind is full of business ideas but the usual business advice has never quite fitted, this practical guide for dyslexic entrepreneurs may help you think through where you can add value.
For dyslexic and ADHD entrepreneurs, think of AI as a staff member
The third point is the practical one. If you are not already playing with AI, I think now is the time to start. Not because you need to become an AI expert overnight, but because you learn what it can do by bringing it into a real task.
The shift that helps me most is not thinking of AI as just technology. Technically, of course, it is technology. But I find it far more useful to think of it as a staff member.
A staff member needs context. They need a clear brief. They need to be taught how you like work done. They may need access to the right tools. AI is similar. If you give it a vague instruction with no background, you may get a vague answer back. If you give it context about your business, your customer, your goal and the format you need, you have a much better starting point.
I also think it is worth considering a paid account if you are using AI seriously for work. Free versions can be useful for trying things out, but I would look at the investment in the same way I would look at paying for a tool used by a team member. You are paying for capability you intend to use, not collecting another shiny object.
Some AI tools also let you connect other tools or sources of information. That can make them more useful, but do not let it become a procrastination project. Start simple. Ask an AI tool to help you clarify an offer, organise a rough idea, create a first draft, map customer questions or identify the next few actions in a project.
For more ideas on building work around the way your mind actually operates, you can read our conversation about AI productivity for dyslexia and ADHD.
More output can still create decision fatigue
There is a catch here. AI can do a huge amount of the work, but you are still the person deciding what matters, what is accurate, what sounds like you and what happens next. That can be tiring.
I have found myself getting more done with AI than I thought possible, while also feeling decision-fatigued. It is a strange combination. When ideas, options and drafts arrive quickly, an ADHD or dyslexic brain can be tempted to keep going, keep tweaking and open five more tabs just because it can.
So, build in a little structure around it. Choose one task. Decide what a good result would look like before you start. Give the tool a useful brief. Review the output, make the decision you need to make, then stop. You do not need to turn every conversation with AI into an all-night strategy session.
The aim is not to use AI in the most impressive way possible. The aim is to make it useful in your actual life or business, while protecting enough mental space to stay human.
If burnout and everyday mental load are already familiar territory, this episode on neurodivergent burnout is a helpful related read.
Start playing before you feel fully ready
My overall view is simple. This is not slowing down, and there is a genuine opportunity here for people who think differently. Between AI, YouTube and hands-on experimenting, there are more ways than ever to learn something practical without needing to fit the old school model.
You do not have to predict the whole future of work. You just need to get a little closer to the tools that may shape it. Pick something you already care about, whether that is a business idea, a problem at work or a project that has been sitting in your notes for months.
Then ask an AI tool a better question than “what can you do?” Give it the context and ask, “How can you help me with this?” See where the conversation goes. Keep your judgement switched on, expect a few rough answers and learn through using it.
If you want to keep exploring episodes like this, browse the full Truth About Dyslexia podcast library.
A grounded way to meet the AI shift
I am not saying every prediction around AI is right, and I am definitely not saying it will solve everything. I do believe it is worth paying attention to, especially if you run a business, want to start one, or regularly feel that your ideas move faster than the systems around you.
Start small this week. Choose one real task and spend 20 minutes showing an AI tool what you are trying to achieve. Treat it like a new staff member who needs a decent brief, not a magic button. Then decide whether it saved you time, improved your thinking or simply gave you more options to manage.
That small bit of playing will teach you more than doom-scrolling another hot take about the future.
Read the full episode transcript
Hey everybody, Steven here from The Dyslexic Entrepreneur in today's episode, I just thought I'd do you a little bit of an update on three things that I'm hearing a lot about AI at the moment that people need to be really aware of that I think people are getting wrong and this if you get it wrong, it's going to hurt you in the future. And I truly believe these things. Now, this is my opinion, like a lot of the opinions out there, but having listened to probably hundreds of podcasts, I think this is vital for us with ADHD and dyslexia to realize these three points. So let's get into today's episode. OK, So you know, as my entrepreneurial journey continues, I'm always doing a lot of stuff. My ADHD is always crazy.
As I'm recording this, I'm having a bookcase door installed that I'm I'm starting a business around in New Zealand where we can install these cool bookcase doors in people's houses. It's literally being installed while I record this just because I I like chaos. It's the ADHD way our brains are chaotic. We, we start more things than we can finish, but oddly, we feel more calm in that environment than when the world has actually come around us. You know, calm is actually sometimes a negative environment, which sounds weird. We kind of live in an opposite world now.
One of the things that's also changing at a crazy pace is AI and one to share 3 quick things that I see coming out that I think are wrong One, and let's let's just dive into this. I'm not one to mess around with small talk as someone told me in a meeting the other day and they loved it. I love it too. The first thing that I'm seeing too often said is that AOI is going to create this amazing, beautiful world where everyone has abundance. Now, my truth here is that there is quite a chance that that could happen. That is one of the possibilities.
It's likely to happen in 20-30, forty years. In my opinion, it's a lot longer out than people expect. I feel there's a lot of neurodiverse commentators out there. Maybe they know they're neurodiverse, maybe they don't that are under estimating the time it's going to take to get to this amazing place. Now whenever things have happened like this, the industrial revolution, etcetera, these happened over a lot of time. Now AI is going to move quicker than that, but for a lot of us to actually roll out, it's going to take ages.
Robots are not going to be running the world in the next two years. They may have released some demo ones that are floating around and started to install in certain places, but they're not going to be picking your kids up from school, right? This is going to take years and years and years. And don't get me wrong, you know, we're actually, I think getting more changes in life than ever. I do think we'll probably solve a lot of disease in the next 10 years. I think a lot is going to happen in the next 10 years.
But I think for this to completely roll out and to get to a really amazing place, there's a lot of change ahead of us. So, you know, you can put your head in the sand and hope the government works it out, but they're going to stuff it up. Let's be honest, they stuff everything up. They're still coming to terms half the time with ADHD and dyslexia, which have been around for years and years and years, and they're still not quite aware of it. So let's be honest, whatever country you live in, the government's going to be behind the 8 ball. This is just the truth.
We know it, they're not. You know, you have to really take ownership yourself now. Just making the decision to realize AI is going to change some stuff, it's probably going to take longer than it is. That puts you in a good position. It brings me to the next, the next point, you know, I'm hearing a lot at the moment, information based jobs are being taken by AI. The answer to that is yes, it's going to happen.
There's going to be a real interesting point for accountants, lawyers, professionals, people that used to spend you pay 2, three, $400. 00 for, they're going to, there's going to be a reckoning. A lot of them are not going to lose their jobs overnight. By no means, because I don't think it's as fast as people think, but it doesn't mean that they're not going to lose their jobs. And some of it's going to get taken up by other people. But what we do have to realize is that, you know, maybe 1015% of the world is actually getting professional advice, even by proper doctors and stuff.
It's not as high as people think it is. Now AI is going to start to fill in gaps across the, the, the world and it's going to be slow, but it's going to, it's going to be slow and fast at the same time. So what this means is there's a real chance for arbitrage. Now I'll be honest, like I was very smart as a ADHD dyslexic thinker when I built my web design agency. I've got 7 staff in the Philippines, amazing human beings. Some have been with me for 10-15 years.
And I used the arbitrage ability of the cost of Labor in the Philippines versus New Zealand to make money. Like that's just the way I was able to support families in the Philippines I could never have done in New Zealand and bring cost effective work to New Zealand. And that's kept me in a really nice state. I'm not a multi millionaire by any means, but it's paid the bills. I've given people opportunities in another country and delivered a great product in my home country. Now that's the way it was.
Now AI is going to start to come in. Now some of those guys are still going to have jobs, don't get me wrong, which is great. But there's a real arbitrage opportunity with AI to become that middle man. And I think we're seeing this across the board. There was this great example of the Wigovi salesperson who was using teleconsultants to use compounded drugs in the States. It's a long story, but he basically built a $400 million business being the middleman and using AI.
And this is going to be seen more and more and more. So there's a real Wild West point here where for the next two to five years, I think there's a real gap. Not as many people as you think are using AI, and the ones that are don't know what they're really doing. So if you really do want to hyper focus on something, this is the big thing to hyper focus on. And then what's the next? What's the the last thing I wanted to talk about that I'm hearing a lot is kind of the silence about what should you do next?
Like there's a lot of random hyperbole about different things. And some of this is probably the bit that some people are getting right, some people are getting wrong. But the major thing I want you to think about is if you're not already playing with AI like it is a toy or you're investing in it, you need to and you also need to look at it in a different way. People are talking about this as technology. And don't get me wrong, it technically is technology, but being a dyslexic thinker, I like to think of it as a staff member. That's the way you need to consider AI.
You need to spend money on it like it's a staff member. You need to invest time in it like a staff member. You need to teach IT skills like a staff member and you need to give it tools. Claude is a great example of this. You can give it tools using connectors. I might do a class on this at some point.
Reach out truth about the sexy. com if you think that's a good thing. But you need to give it tools which are connectors. You can teach IT skills, which are kind of like prompts and briefs in a certain way that teach IT skills like a staff member and you need to, you need to actually buy a reasonable account. Most people are trying to hack at it on a free account and it works to a point, but it is nowhere near as good as when you actually invest in the get accounts. And you need to really like, you need to really think about it as that team member.
It's going to actually do more work for you than you imagine, which can cause a bit of fatigue and burnout. I'm not going to lie, I'm doing more on it than I ever thought possible, which is great. But oddly, it's actually very tiring. Like it's probably doing 90% of the work, maybe more than that. And but my brain is decision fatigued a lot. So just be conscious of that as you're going forward.
But nonetheless, I still wouldn't say stop it. I love it. It's amazing. You know, you can either get on the bandwagon with this stuff or you can hope that it's going to change. And I actually think like, if you want to create change, use AI to help you create better change in the world because this isn't slowing down. This train is taken off and you're either on at the beginning of the carriage or you're hanging on to the end.
And I think a lot of people won't even get on the train. Do you know what I mean? There's a real opportunity for ADHD dyslexic thinkers. You know, school isn't what it used to be. It's like realistically AI can help you learn whatever you want. Between AI, YouTube and just playing, that is our happy zone.
So you know guys as well. I wanted to share that I've just got some passion flowing through my veins around this. I want to get this message out. I just I really cannot speak highly enough. Whatever you're doing in business, AI can be a tool for it. Talk to AI about it.
Ask Claude. How can you help me with this business or this idea and just work with it. It will blow your brain as you start to get more and more in depth. So that's why I shared that guys, have a great rest of your day, rest of your week. Again, reach out to me at the Truth about the sexy. com if you want some help there or find me on the socials.
Posting a lot on LinkedIn at the moment under Stephen Martin, which is my name, other than the dyslexic entrepreneur, but have an excellent rest your day and I'll be back next week. Thank you for listening to today's podcast on the Truth about dyslexia. If you're looking for a group of awesome humans to help you with ADHD, dyslexia and the neurodivergent brain, maybe the right Brain Resetters is for you. You can find us@rightbrainresetters. com. And for just $7.
00 a month you can join our amazing group where you'll get Q&A's, you're going to get little mini courses and heaps of stuff. It's way more value than you will invest in joining O Make sure you head to rightbrainresetterscom and we'll put the link in the show notes.
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