Your AI Has Amnesia. Here's How to Fix It.
I hear the same story from organizations everywhere.
They invest in powerful AI tools, but their teams quickly become frustrated.
They ask the AI a simple question about a client project, and it stares back blankly.
It has no idea what they're talking about.
The immediate assumption is that the AI isn't smart enough.
The real issue is that we're asking it to be a key team player without ever giving it a key to the office.
Mastering the technology is straightforward; the more valuable work is in changing our behavior to provide AI with the context it needs to be a truly effective partner.
The Mindset Flaw: We evaluate AI on its raw intelligence, but we should be evaluating it on its access.
An AI without context is a genius with amnesia.
THE PROBLEM: THE FREELANCER VS. THE TEAMMATE
Think of it this way. A powerful, external AI like ChatGPT is a brilliant freelance consultant.
It has a vast knowledge of public information, and with features like Memory, it can even remember your past conversations.
It's incredibly capable for specific, external tasks.
But it doesn't work at your company.
It can't read the email you just received, it doesn't know what happened in your Teams meeting, and it can't access the files in your SharePoint.
An integrated AI, like Microsoft Copilot or Google's Gemini, is a different beast entirely.
It's designed to be a teammate.
It's already inside your digital office, with full access to the flow of your work.
Expecting the freelance consultant to do the work of a fully-onboarded teammate is a recipe for frustration.
THE FRAMEWORK: FIND YOUR CENTER OF GRAVITY
While everyone else is asking "Which AI is the best?" you can build a real advantage by focusing on your workflow.
Here's how:
STEP ONE: IDENTIFY YOUR "CENTER OF GRAVITY"
The first step is to ask: Where does our work actually live?
Is it inside the Microsoft 365 universe of Outlook, Teams, and Word?
Is it within Google Workspace, where our documents, emails, and spreadsheets are?
Or is it a custom platform, like Salesforce or something else?
Your center of gravity determines which AI can act as a true teammate. For a Microsoft-centric company, that's Copilot. For Google shops, it's Gemini. The tool's name is less important than its location.
STEP TWO: CHOOSE THE RIGHT AI FOR THE JOB
The smarter approach is to build a small toolkit for the right AI for the right job, rather than trying to pick one definitive winner.
For Internal Tasks: Default to your Integrated Partner (Copilot or Gemini). Use it for anything that requires knowledge of your projects, people, or data—like catching up on emails, preparing for meetings, or creating a first draft from an internal document.
For External Tasks: Use your Expert Consultant (like ChatGPT). Leverage it for broad market research, creative ideation outside your company's context, and tapping into its vast ecosystem of specialized GPTs.
But pay attention here—context doesn't mean dumping everything in your database at AI!
The best teams know how to point these tools to just the right amount of relevant information. (It's becoming known as context engineering, as opposed to prompt engineering - a hot topic on social media these days.)
When you ask AI to research something, your original question becomes a tiny fraction of what it's actually processing, as it searches sources and pieces together information.
The key is making sure it has access to the right sources, not all the sources.
STEP THREE: SHIFT FROM QUERIES TO COLLABORATION
Regardless of the tool, the most important behavioral shift is moving from one-shot commands to iterative dialogues. An integrated AI's true power is unlocked when you collaborate with it.
Instead of: "Summarize our research on the EV market."
Try: "Using our recent research report on EV chargers (link the file) and the attached email from our client (link the email), create a five-slide presentation outline that addresses the client's key questions and recommends a launch date."
This transforms a simple query into a high-level collaborative task between you and a partner that understands your work.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The companies winning with AI understand an AI's raw intelligence is only unlocked when combined with the ability to be a true, contributing member of the team.
They aren't just buying the most powerful model. They're changing their behavior to build a seamless workflow around an AI that has context.
By the way - teaching teams how to build these productive, integrated workflows is what we do. The principles are universal, and our AI Mindset: Copilot Edition course provides the deep, platform-specific training to make it happen.
