Here's the rewrite in Adam's voice — more direct and authoritative, all content intact, no em dashes:
"Maybe we should just ban AI on Friday afternoons."
It sounds like a joke. It isn't.
By Friday afternoon, most people are running on fumes. The week has been long, there's a list of things to wrap up before the weekend, and attention to detail isn't what it was on Monday morning.
Now add AI into that mix.
Tools like Microsoft Copilot can draft emails, summarize documents, and generate responses in seconds. That's genuinely useful. It's also where a subtle risk creeps in.
The output looks polished and ready to send. When you're tired, it's easy to trust it without a second look. That's exactly where problems slip through.
An email that sounds slightly off. A message with the wrong tone. Something that's technically correct but not right for the situation. The wrong tone is harder to catch when you're rushing to close out the week.
There's a second issue here that doesn't get talked about enough. The more we let AI do the thinking, the less we challenge what it produces. That dulls critical thinking over time. Instead of asking "is this right," the default becomes "that looks fine." Across a team, over months, that shift changes how decisions get made.
Some people call this "AI fatigue." Constantly interacting with AI tools, checking them, relying on them, it wears people down.
So "no AI on Fridays" isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. At the end of the week, people skip steps, question less, and hit send faster. AI makes all of that easier to do.
You don't need to turn AI off. You do need habits around it.
Require your team to review anything AI-generated before it goes out externally, especially emails, customer responses, or anything that represents your business. Make tone as much a part of that review as content.
If your team is using tools like Copilot across the business, put simple guidelines in place. Set clear expectations for when AI should be used and how the output should be handled.
AI is a strong assistant. It still needs a human in the loop, especially at 4:30 on a Friday.
If you want help putting sensible AI rules in place for your business, get in touch.