When I spend more time troubleshooting a digital employee than I spent building it, I feel like a fraud.
Who do I think I am to be in a certified AI agent builder program? I'm no techie.
I mean, not a REAL techie. Yes, I've worked with tech and around tech for years. I helped universities roll out new learning management systems and helped faculty bring tech into their teaching.
I taught my first fully online course way back in 2003. And yes, I've worked in marketing for almost ten years. But still. Not a techie.
Then I'm on Meta, scrolling, and the ads start showing up. AI certifications from real schools, university logos right there in the ad. I know how the algorithm works. Not surprised.
And for a minute I actually wondered if I should be doing something more formal. Something through a university. Which is funny, because I know universities don't have a moat on learning.
That's my old training talking. And what society thinks about universities. I have a PhD. Do I need more university certificates? No.
Some days I still wonder if I'm a fake expert. A PhD one. Because of how much troubleshooting I'm doing.
My PhD is in adult education, not AI. It was about how people respond to institutional pressure to commodify themselves. Turns out that's what a lot of people are living through with AI right now.
And I'm already in a certified program. Peter Swain's certified AI agent builder program. Peter isn't a university. Look him up. Thirty years building companies, a few of them eight figures, and he's done work for Apple, Google and Microsoft.
And he vouches for me. He'll be passing work my way.
Credibility by proximity? Yep. I'll take it.
It's the cred you buy from a university versus someone who's seen what you can actually do.
The troubleshooting is what building looks like. Nobody gets an agent working on the first try. Ask Joe, my AI chief of staff, about the two days he made up the weather.
I'll be selling AI employees in time. So yes, the technical side matters. I'm learning it the way everyone does, by breaking things and fixing them.
It's a weird space to be in. I study the pressure to AI. Complying, resisting, humanizing. I've never watched it from the outside, because it affects me too.
And now I'm building the thing. I'm not putting pressure on anyone. I'm at the table, trying to be a thoughtful voice in the conversation and an option for people.
I haven't resolved that. I'm sitting with it.
I'm keeping myself in the humanizing lane. That's actually why I'm doing this work, building agents included.
This is something I needed to tell myself. Maybe you need to hear it too, whether you're just getting into all the AI jargon, resisting it, going along with it, or trying to find your way through.