Sunday Soma Brief #8: Don’t Panic, Just Pivot 🤖

The Confession: I finally broke down and fully set up the agentic workflows this weekend 🫢.

Watching my screen flicker through inventory syncs and report drafts "on its own" felt like a digital ghost had taken up residence in my office. It’s weird AF, I know. But when you’re spinning every single plate for two businesses, that ghost is a blessing in AI disguise.

It’s survival of the fittest in action: you either fear the ghost, or you let it do your chores.

I’m tired, y’all. I’m choosing the help.

The "Automation" Rabbit Hole: I was talking to a fellow founder in Naperville who was legitimately mad at her LLM (Large Language Model). She felt like the "soul" was being sucked out of her process.

It took me back to my FIDM days studying Merchandise Product Development. I poured so much time into learning Illustrator and Photoshop for CAD, only to realize that in 2026, the "how" matters less than the "what."

The tools change, but the vision stays the same. We aren't being replaced; we’re being unburdened from the "chores" of business.

The Soma Take: Being afraid of AI in 2026 is like being afraid of the microwave in the 80s. Let that sink in while you warm up your coffee 😉.

It’s not going to cook the 5-star meal for you, but it’ll definitely help you prep the ingredients faster. The shift we’re seeing is moving from Simple Automation (writing a generic caption) to Agentic Autonomy (AI executing the actual tasks).

Don’t be mad at the robot: be excited that you finally have a FREE-ish "assistant" that allows you to get back to the high-level strategy only a human brain can handle.

The Green Asteroid: AI and the Environment

Before we all go full-throttle into Agentic Autonomy, we have to talk about the cost that isn't on the monthly subscription bill. AI isn't just floating in the cloud; it lives in massive data centers that eat electricity and guzzle water for cooling.

Every time we ask an LLM to brainstorm 50 subject lines, there’s a real-world environmental footprint attached.

So, how do we use this "blessing in disguise" without being part of the problem?

• Be Intentional: Don't use a flamethrower to light a candle. If you can write a simple email faster than you can prompt an AI to do it, just write the email. Save the "AI energy" for the complex workflows like inventory syncs or data analysis.

• Batch Your Tasks: Instead of 50 small prompts throughout the day, group your needs. One long, well-structured prompt is often more energy-efficient than a dozen follow-up questions.

• Quality Over Quantity: In the 2026 playbook, we’re moving away from high-volume AI noise anyway. When you focus on high-trust storytelling, you naturally use the tools less frequently but more effectively.

The goal is to be a scrappy survivor in this new digital clade without burning down the forest we're trying to live in.

Drop a comment: What’s the one task in your business that you’re still "protecting" from AI because you’re afraid it’ll lose its soul?