I spent two hours this morning getting back into my google account, realizing that two old iphones were still linked to several accounts despite being factory reset and wiped out. I spent an hour yesterday undoing Zoom settings I never toggled that had unwanted AI assists popping up.
And lately, I’ve been waking up more and more unsettled, wondering what new adventure awaits with each overnight update in the multitude of apps, cloud based software and apple devices I use to operate my business.
Give me a nod if you’re with me on this.
The tools I rely on to run my business, the ones that were supposed to make life easier are starting to make decisions for me. AI is everywhere now, baked into the apps I use without me asking for it. Quickbooks being the latest with it’s new interface and friendly blonde “expert” sitting in the top right of my dashboard.
Look, I love tech and you might call me an early adopter but what once felt like progress is starting to feel like a hostile takeover.
As AI seeps into every app and service, from scheduling tools to email marketing, something subtle but significant is happening: we’re losing a piece of our entrepreneurial agency.
It’s not that technology is the enemy. In fact, AI is my powerful ally. But as it takes over decisions I once made consciously, what to write, what to toggle, when to send, who to reach, how to price, it also begins to shape my thinking, my rhythm, and if I fall asleep at the wheel, even my relationship to risk.
When a system tells us what’s “performing best,” we start to conform. And for a self identified “non-conformist” that’s a total red flag. When I wake up, roll over and discover AI is my uninvited bedfellow I freak out.
And when my creative pauses are replaced by prompts and next-step suggestions, I lose the reflective space where original thought is born. And you know that’s my “thang”… the pursuit of original thought.
Of biggest concern to me is the sneaky insertion of AI, the kind we don’t consciously choose but have to actively disable. Everyday tools we’ve trusted for years are quietly layering in AI functions that capture, analyze, and interpret our interactions without our explicit consent. Zoom now adds “AI notes” and saves chat transcripts until we toggle it off in a setting far, far away in a galaxy where no man has ever gone before. Email services draft “smart replies.” Project tools summarize meetings before we’ve even reflected on them. These features may look like convenience, but they subtly shift ownership of our words, insights, and even our thought process.
When reflection becomes automated, we lose not just privacy, we lose presence and agency.
When I notice I’ve lost agency, it’s jarring. It feels like something has been decided for me without my consent, and I’m suddenly aware of how little say I had in it. There’s an edge of anger, not just at the technology, but at myself for not catching it sooner. Beneath that is a kind of hopelessness, like the world has quietly rearranged itself and I’ve been moved to the sidelines. It’s disorienting, almost violating, to realize that what used to be an intentional act has become an automated one. That moment jolts me awake. It reminds me that ease without choice isn’t freedom, it’s submission.
For me, entrepreneurship has always been about agency, the freedom to imagine, to act, to take responsibility for outcomes.
If we hand too much of that to automation, we risk trading our autonomy for efficiency, and our intuition for convenience.
The opportunity isn’t to resist AI; it’s to use it consciously.
To stay awake to who is really making the decisions, and to regularly re-anchor in our own values, intuition, and creative intent.
Because in the end, tools should extend our agency, not replace it. And perhaps the first step in reclaiming that agency is noticing when it quietly slips away, and choosing, intentionally, to take it back. Just as importantly, we need to demand that AI systems evolve with ethics that include achieving implicit consent, not assuming it.
Leadership Coaching for Founders
As technology evolves faster than consent, leadership today requires more than strategy, it demands presence, discernment, and agency. Tracey Burns helps founders stay human in a world of automation, navigate tough conversations, and lead with integrity in the midst of change.
Founder-focused leadership coaching:
• Executive and leadership presence
• Conflict resolution and team alignment
• Navigating financial and business transitions
• Emotional intelligence and trust-building
• Sustaining energy and well-being under pressure
Reclaim your agency. Strengthen your culture. Lead consciously in the age of AI.
Book a session today.
