🚩Tactical Memo 097: You Own What the AI Gets Wrong
Nobody asks which tool made the error. They ask who sent it.
Justin Bateh
September 29, 2026
Tactical Memo #097 | The Unwritten Rules · AI | 3 min read
Tactical Memo: one memo a week on career growth and modern management, read by 18,000+ leaders at Amazon, Deloitte, and Google. Forwarded? Subscribe free.
In brief The situation: You use AI for first drafts and summaries so you can move faster. The mistake: You send the output without checking it, because it looks finished. The move: Check the parts that can hurt you before anything leaves your hands. |
The story
Picture the weekly update to your boss.
You asked AI to summarize a week of customer calls and pull the churn number.
It came back clean. It read like something you'd written on a good day.
You sent it without opening the source file.
A week later your boss repeats that number in a leadership meeting, and someone from finance corrects it in front of the room.
4 minutes to send it. A week to find out it was wrong.
Nobody in that meeting asks which tool made the error.
They ask who sent it.
If you've ever forwarded AI output because it looked finished, you're in the same spot.
Your name is on the AI's mistakes. Here's how to work with it.
The moves
1/ Check the numbers and the names first
Before anything AI touched leaves your hands, find every number and every name in it.
Trace each one back to where it came from. Open the file.
Numbers and names are what your boss repeats to other people.
Check the parts someone else will repeat.
Checklist Every number traced to its source. Every name spelled the way that person spells it. Every claim you couldn't defend OUT LOUD, cut. |
2/ Read it as the person receiving it
Read the draft ONCE as your boss.
Then read it again as the person most likely to push back on it.
AI writes for the prompt you gave it. It doesn't know what your boss said last month, or who in the room already disagrees.
You're the only one who knows who will read it.
Ask this "If my boss forwards this as it is, what's the first question someone asks?" |
3/ Say what AI did and what you checked
When AI did part of the work, say so in 1 line.
Then say what you checked yourself.
If you hide it and something is wrong, it looks careless. If you flagged it and checked it, it looks like judgment.
Once your boss knows what you checked, they stop checking it again.
Say this "AI drafted this. I checked the numbers against the billing report myself." |
The outcome
| Most people | You |
|---|---|
| Send the output because it looks finished | Trace every number before it goes out |
| Read the draft as the person who wrote it | Read it as the person receiving it |
| Hide that AI did the first pass | Say what AI did and what you checked |
Proof. In a global study of more than 48,000 people, 66% of employees said they rely on AI output without checking its accuracy, and 56% said they've made mistakes at work because of it. KPMG and University of Melbourne, 2025
This week
AI does the first draft. You own what goes out.
The people who've learned this still move fast with AI. They spend part of the time it saves checking the few lines that matter.
Try it next time. Before you send anything AI touched, trace 1 number back to its source.
The room will remember who sent it.
Reply
What's the AI mistake that almost went out under your name? Reply with the one that scared you most. I read every one.
When you're ready Free lesson, Oct 21: Use AI to Run a Project Kickoff That Aligns Your Team. 45 minutes on Wednesday, Oct 21 at 11am ET, with the recording sent after. You leave with a repeatable kickoff process and a template for your next project. Register free AI Project Management: run your real projects in 4 weeks while AI handles the busywork. See the course Management for Hybrid Teams: the operating system for leading people and AI agents on one team. See the course Project Management That Actually Works: the 7-step system to plan, lead, and finish without winging it. See the course |
Until next time.
Justin Bateh, PhD
Former COO, LinkedIn Top Voice
Founder and Editor, Tactical Memo