I'm a senior principal engineer. I use AI at work, but some tasks you should do from scratch — here's how I decide.
A senior engineer at GoTo shares his practical framework for integrating AI into professional workflows. He emphasizes the importance of verifying AI outputs and suggests a 'two-second rule' to determine when manual effort is more efficient than automation.
Why it matters
As AI adoption grows in the workplace, understanding how to balance human oversight with machine efficiency is critical for maintaining productivity and accuracy.
Brandon Pedersen. Courtesy of Brandon Pedersen GoTo engineer Brandon Pedersen says people should never blindly trust AI-generated work. Pedersen suggests that you ask AI for its sources, follow the links, and check its reasoning. He follows this two-second rule: If you can do it quickly yourself, skip the AI assistance. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brandon Pedersen, a 41-year-old senior principal engineer at GoTo, based in the Salt Lake City area. The following has been edited for length and clarity. As a senior principal engineer at GoTo, where I started working in 2013, I'm the technical lead of an AI enablement team responsible for maintaining AI platforms, creating new tools that help people do their jobs, and providing training and consulting support across the company.
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