That AI Blog
What FIFO Taught Me About Using AI Properly
Nobody climbs into a loader underground and just hopes for the best.
Before you turn a wheel, you do your pre-start. Walk around the machine. Check the tyres, the lights, the fluids, the brakes. Tick the boxes. It's boring, it's repetitive, and it's a big part of why everyone gets home at the end of swing.
I drive underground trucks and loaders at a mine in North West Queensland. In my spare time I've been spending a lot of time with AI tools.
And the more I use them, the more I reckon the mine already taught me how to use them properly.
Check your gear before you trust it
Underground, you don't trust a machine because it started. You trust it because you checked it.
AI is the same. It'll spit out a quote, an email or a resume in seconds, and it'll sound dead confident doing it. But sounding confident and being right are two different things. It can get a number wrong, make up a detail, or write something that sounds nothing like the person sending it.
So treat everything it gives you like a machine fresh out of the workshop. Looks good, sure. Now check it. Read every line. Check the figures. Make sure the names, dates and prices are actually yours.
A good pre-start beats winging it
A pre-start isn't just about the machine. It's about knowing what you're doing before you start doing it.
AI rewards a proper brief. Type "write me a quote" and you'll get something generic and pretty useless. Tell it who the customer is, what the job is, the materials, how long it'll take, your rates and how you want it to sound, and you'll get something you can actually use.
Think of your prompt as the pre-start. Thirty seconds setting it up properly saves you ten minutes fixing it afterwards.
Don't let it drive blind
Underground, you don't go charging into a heading you can't see. Visibility is everything.
Letting AI fire off emails or messages to customers without you looking at them first is driving blind. It might be fine most of the time. Then one day it says something weird to your best customer, and you don't find out until they stop calling.
Keep your hands on the controls. Let it draft. You decide what goes out.
The human bit still matters most
What keeps people safe underground isn't just the gear. It's the crew. It's people looking out for each other and speaking up when something doesn't look right. That trust gets built shift by shift.
Business works the same way. Your customers don't stick with you because your emails are perfectly worded. They stick with you because you turned up, did good work and were straight with them.
AI can take the paperwork off your plate. It can't build the relationship, and it can't make the judgement calls. That's still your job, and it should be.
Why I bother with this stuff
I don't come from a trades background. I'm a FIFO bloke with not much spare time, so I've got to make the most of the time I have.
That's exactly why AI clicked for me. Used properly, it lets you do a decent job in a short window. Used badly, it just makes a mess faster.
That's what I do now with That AI Bloke. I help tradies, small businesses and FIFO workers use AI for the boring stuff like resumes, quotes and follow-ups, so they get some time back without handing over the steering wheel.
A few practical tips
If you're a tradie or FIFO worker keen to give it a crack, here's where I'd start:
- Start with one job. Pick the admin task you hate most, like quotes or follow-up emails, and only use AI for that until it's second nature.
- Give it the full picture. Who it's for, what you want, the details that matter and how it should sound. Lazy prompts get lazy results.
- Check every line before it goes out. Prices, names, dates and anything that sounds made up. If you wouldn't sign it, don't send it.
- Keep private stuff private. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want floating around, like customer bank details or personal documents.
- Make it sound like you. Ask for plain, casual writing, then fix anything that doesn't sound like something you'd actually say.
- Keep your resume honest. AI is great at tidying up your experience and tickets, but never let it add anything you haven't actually done.
The bottom line
AI is just another bit of gear. A good one, if you look after it.
Do your pre-start. Give it a clear job. Check the work. Keep a human in the seat.
Same rules as underground. Check it, brief it, and never let it drive blind.