The problem with best practices in the age of AI
Feb 27, 2026
5min read
It’s 2026, and if you’re still following a 'best practices' guide from 2024, you’re already behind. For a long time, we relied on these sets of rules to tell us how to code, how to market, and how to run businesses. They were safe. They worked. But now that AI is doing the heavy lifting for almost every industry, those old rules are actually holding us back.
The first big issue is speed. In the past, a best practice might stay relevant for five or ten years. Now, AI models update every few weeks, learning new ways to solve problems. By the time a group of experts agrees on a 'standard' way to do something, the technology has already changed. If you wait for a manual to tell you what’s right, you’ll never be ahead. You’re playing catch-up in a world that doesn’t slow down anymore.
Then there’s the problem of being average. AI is trained on what already exists. When you ask a system for the best way to design a website or write an ad, it looks at millions of examples and gives you the most common, statistically safe answer. If everyone follows the same AI-driven advice, everything starts to look and feel the same. We end up with a world of 'perfect' but boring products. To stand out today, you have to be willing to ignore what the data says is 'best' and try something a bit weird or uniquely human.
In 2026, the real winners aren't the people who follow the rules the best. They are the people who know when to break them. We need to stop treating AI as a boss and start treating it as a basic starting point. Use it to get the foundation ready, but then add your own gut feeling and personal experience. That’s something no algorithm can truly replicate yet.
We used to think following the path was the way to win. Today, the path is changing as we walk on it. The real skill now isn't knowing the rules; it's having the courage to ignore them when your intuition tells you something better is possible.
The first big issue is speed. In the past, a best practice might stay relevant for five or ten years. Now, AI models update every few weeks, learning new ways to solve problems. By the time a group of experts agrees on a 'standard' way to do something, the technology has already changed. If you wait for a manual to tell you what’s right, you’ll never be ahead. You’re playing catch-up in a world that doesn’t slow down anymore.
Then there’s the problem of being average. AI is trained on what already exists. When you ask a system for the best way to design a website or write an ad, it looks at millions of examples and gives you the most common, statistically safe answer. If everyone follows the same AI-driven advice, everything starts to look and feel the same. We end up with a world of 'perfect' but boring products. To stand out today, you have to be willing to ignore what the data says is 'best' and try something a bit weird or uniquely human.
In 2026, the real winners aren't the people who follow the rules the best. They are the people who know when to break them. We need to stop treating AI as a boss and start treating it as a basic starting point. Use it to get the foundation ready, but then add your own gut feeling and personal experience. That’s something no algorithm can truly replicate yet.
We used to think following the path was the way to win. Today, the path is changing as we walk on it. The real skill now isn't knowing the rules; it's having the courage to ignore them when your intuition tells you something better is possible.
