What Tasks Is AI Good At vs. Not Good At?

by Stephen Wu, a retired engineering manager, spent several years building AI workflows for his teams and now trying to make AI something everyone can understand and use successfully

AI has gotten a lot of hype, and it can feel hard to separate what's actually useful from what's overblown. Understanding what AI does well—and what it struggles with—helps you use it effectively instead of getting frustrated when it doesn't deliver.

What AI Excels At

AI is particularly strong at tasks that involve processing large amounts of information, recognizing patterns, and generating text based on what it's learned.

AI is excellent for:

Explaining concepts in different ways until you understand them
Summarizing long documents or articles into key points
Brainstorming ideas when you need multiple options to consider
Drafting first versions of emails, messages, or other routine writing
Answering questions about topics you're unfamiliar with
Helping you organize and structure your thoughts
Translating between languages
Writing or debugging code
Finding patterns in information you give it

These tasks have something in common: they involve working with existing information, generating variations, or restructuring content. AI can process and manipulate text incredibly quickly and suggest approaches you might not have thought of.

What AI Struggles With

AI has clear limitations that you'll run into if you expect it to work like a human expert.

AI is poor at:

Knowing what's happened recently (most AI models have knowledge cutoffs)
Accessing real-time information like current stock prices or today's news
Understanding your specific situation without you explaining it
Making decisions that require human judgment or values
Creating truly novel ideas (it recombines existing patterns)
Verifying facts or checking if something is actually true
Understanding nuance, context, or unspoken assumptions
Tasks requiring empathy or emotional intelligence
Anything requiring physical presence or manipulation

AI also sometimes "hallucinates"—confidently stating things that are completely wrong. It can make up facts, invent sources that don't exist, or give you plausible-sounding but incorrect information.

A Practical Example

Let's say you're planning a career change and wondering if you should pursue data science.

Where AI helps: You can ask AI to explain what data scientists actually do day-to-day, what skills you'd need to develop, what the learning path typically looks like, and how to evaluate if your background would transfer. AI can break down complex topics into understandable explanations.

AI prompt: "I'm considering a career change to data science. I have a background in marketing and am comfortable with Excel but haven't coded before. Can you explain what a data scientist actually does and what skills I'd need to build?"

AI gives you a solid overview of the role, the skills involved, and a realistic assessment of what you'd need to learn.

Where AI falls short: AI can't tell you if you would actually enjoy data science work, or whether the job market in your specific location is good right now, or if your particular background would make you a strong candidate. It doesn't know you, your strengths, or your local job market.

You still need to do your own research on current job postings, talk to people actually working in the field, and reflect on what kind of work energizes you. AI provides information; you provide judgment.

When AI's Limitations Show Up

You'll notice AI struggling when:

You ask about very recent events or information
You need advice specific to your unique situation
You're looking for definitive answers about subjective decisions
You need information verified and can't accept "probably correct"
The task requires understanding unstated context

AI prompt: "Should I take the job offer from Company X or stay at my current job?"

AI can help you think through pros and cons, but it can't make this decision for you. It doesn't know your financial situation, career goals, family circumstances, or gut feeling about the company culture. It can structure your thinking, but the decision is yours.

How to Work With AI's Strengths

Focus on using AI for what it does well, and recognize when you need human expertise or your own judgment.

Use AI when you need:

Quick explanations of things you don't understand
Multiple options or approaches to consider
Help organizing or structuring information
First drafts that you'll refine
To think through a problem from different angles

Don't rely on AI when you need:

Verified facts for important decisions
Current information about rapidly changing situations
Personalized advice that requires knowing your specific context
Creative work that needs to be truly original
Decisions involving ethics, values, or human judgment

The Key Insight

AI is a tool for augmenting your thinking, not replacing it. It's exceptionally good at certain kinds of information processing and generation, but it's not a substitute for human judgment, expertise, or decision-making.

When you understand what AI does well, you can use it strategically for those tasks and save your time and energy for the things that actually require human intelligence.