Taking AI seriously enough to be careful about it
The Watchful Measured Evaluator is exactly the kind of person that responsible AI deployment needs in the room. You slow things down not because you're behind, but because fast and wrong is worse than slow and right. Your skepticism isn't cynicism — you're genuinely open to AI being useful once it meets a standard you can articulate. That clarity about what would change your mind is a sign of genuine intellectual engagement.
You're most valuable when there's pressure to move quickly and the group needs someone willing to ask "have we actually verified this?" Your questions tend to surface real problems before they become expensive mistakes. That contribution is often invisible until the alternative — not asking — becomes visible in retrospect.
The risk is that your measured approach hardens into a position that no tool could ever meet, because your criteria shift to stay ahead of what's available. Periodically asking yourself "what would have to be true for me to find this genuinely useful?" — and answering it honestly — keeps your evaluation process generative rather than protective.