You're sitting at your desk, staring at a ChatGPT prompt box, feeling stupid.
Everyone says "just use AI" like it's obvious. But when you try, the results are generic. Wrong. Sometimes completely useless.
Meanwhile, your 28-year-old colleague is getting promoted for their "AI skills." And you're wondering if you missed the window.
Here's what nobody's telling you: AI doesn't need prompt engineers. It needs human judgment.
And the brain changes you're experiencing right now? The ones making you feel slower, foggier, less sharp? Those are developing exactly the skills AI requires to be powerful.
Why Most AI Training Fails Women Over 40
Most AI courses teach syntax. "Use this prompt structure." "Add these magic words." "Follow this template."
That's not the problem.
The problem is AI gives you what you ask for, not what you need. If you can't diagnose the real issue, AI just helps you fail faster.
Think about it: If you ask AI to help you write a difficult email to your boss, and you haven't figured out what you're actually trying to accomplish, AI will give you a beautifully written email that solves the wrong problem.
Garbage in, garbage out. No matter how perfect your prompt syntax.
What AI actually needs from you:
- The ability to break overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces
- The skill to find the root problem, not just surface symptoms
- Clarity about what you actually need (not what you think you should ask for)
- The judgment to iterate and adjust as you go
- The wisdom to know what requires your human verification
Notice something? These aren't technical skills.
These are executive function skills. The same ones your perimenopausal brain is reorganizing right now.
Your Brain Isn't Declining. It's Reorganizing.
Here's what's actually happening during perimenopause:
Your brain is pruning connections and rebuilding others. Estrogen fluctuations affect your prefrontal cortex (the planning and organizing center) and hippocampus (memory formation).
The result? You can't hold as much in working memory. Planning everything upfront feels impossible. You're second-guessing decisions you used to make easily.
Research shows: Perimenopausal women experience changes in cognitive processing style. You shift from detail-focused, linear thinking to more integrated, pattern-recognition thinking. (Source: Brinton RD, et al. "Impact of the menopause transition on the brain." Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 2015)
Your brain isn't broken. It's being retrained for different cognitive work.
And that work? It happens to be exactly what makes AI useful.
The 5 Human Judgment Skills AI Needs (And How Your Brain Changes Are Teaching You)
Skill 1: Chunking (Breaking Big Things Into Manageable Pieces)
What it is: The ability to take an overwhelming task and break it into smaller, sequential steps you can actually execute.
Why AI needs it: AI can't see the bigger picture of your work. It needs you to break complex projects into specific, concrete requests.
How your perimenopausal brain is training you:
You used to be able to juggle five projects simultaneously in your head. Now? You can barely remember what you walked into a room for.
So you've started adapting. You write more things down. You break projects into smaller milestones. You focus on one thing at a time instead of trying to hold everything in working memory.
That's chunking. And it's exactly how AI works best.
Example: Instead of asking AI "help me plan the Q4 campaign," you've learned to ask:
- First: "What are the key components of a Q4 marketing campaign?"
- Then: "Help me brainstorm themes for our target audience"
- Then: "Draft a timeline for a 3-month campaign"
- Then: "What budget considerations should I think about?"
Each request is manageable. Each builds on the last. That's the skill.
Research insight: Studies on cognitive load theory show that breaking complex tasks into smaller chunks reduces working memory demands and improves problem-solving. (Source: Sweller J. "Cognitive load theory." Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 2011)
Your brain fog is literally forcing you to work the way AI needs you to work.
Skill 2: Root Cause Analysis (Finding What's Really Going On)
What it is: The ability to identify the actual problem underneath the surface symptoms.
Why AI needs it: AI solves the problem you describe. If you describe the wrong problem, you get the wrong solution.
How your perimenopausal brain is training you:
You're more emotionally aware now. You're noticing patterns you used to miss. That "difficult team member"? You're now seeing they're actually overwhelmed and under-resourced.
That project that keeps stalling? You're realizing it's not a timeline problem, it's a unclear-ownership problem.
This is pattern recognition. Your shifting brain is developing stronger integration between emotional and analytical processing. (Source: Epperson CN, et al. "Gonadal steroids and cognition." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2015)
You're getting better at seeing what's beneath the surface. That's root cause analysis.
Example:
Surface problem: "My team isn't meeting deadlines"
If you ask AI to solve the surface problem: You'll get generic advice about project management tools and deadline reminders. Useless.
Root cause (after reflection): "My team doesn't understand the priorities because I keep changing direction based on leadership's shifting requests"
If you ask AI to solve the root problem: "Help me create a communication framework for managing changing priorities while keeping my team focused"
Now AI can actually help.
The skill: Spending time diagnosing before jumping to solutions. Your perimenopausal brain, with its increased connectivity between emotion and logic, is better equipped for this than your younger brain was.
Skill 3: Clear Communication (Saying What You Actually Need)
What it is: The ability to articulate your needs, context, and constraints without assuming the other party knows what you mean.
Why AI needs it: AI has zero context about your work, your team, your history, or your goals. If you're vague, it guesses. Usually wrong.
How your perimenopausal brain is training you:
Brain fog has made you more deliberate with your words. You've stopped assuming people know what you mean. You've started being more explicit.
"Can you handle the client meeting?" used to feel like enough instruction.
Now you say: "Can you handle the client meeting on Thursday? They're concerned about timeline. Focus on reassuring them about our process and get their feedback on the draft. I need notes by Friday."
That's clear communication. Specificity, context, and expected outcome.
Example:
Vague request to AI: "Help me write a performance review"
AI's output: Generic template that sounds like every other performance review ever written
Clear request to AI: "Help me write a performance review for my direct report, Sarah. She's a marketing coordinator who excels at execution but needs development in strategic thinking. We've discussed this in our 1-on-1s. I want to acknowledge her strengths, address the development area constructively, and suggest specific growth opportunities. Tone should be supportive but direct. Around 300 words."
AI's output: Actually useful, specific to your situation
The skill: Providing context, constraints, and desired outcomes upfront. Your brain fog has forced you to practice this every day.
Skill 4: Iterative Refinement (Adjusting As You Go)
What it is: The ability to take imperfect output and refine it through successive rounds instead of demanding perfection upfront.
Why AI needs it: AI's first response is rarely perfect. It's a starting point. The power comes from conversational refinement.
How your perimenopausal brain is training you:
You've stopped trying to plan everything perfectly upfront. Because you can't. Your working memory won't hold it all anymore.
So you've adapted: Start messy. Adjust as you go. Iterate.
You draft the email. Read it. Realize the tone is wrong. Adjust. Read again. Fix the opening. Send.
That's iterative refinement. And it's exactly how AI conversations work best.
Research insight: Cognitive flexibility - the ability to adapt strategies based on feedback - is a key component of executive function. Interestingly, while some executive functions decline during perimenopause, others (like integrating complex information) can improve. (Source: Weber MT, et al. "Cognition and mood in perimenopause." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2014)
Example:
First AI response: Generic performance review
Your refinement: "This is too formal. Make it more conversational. Also, add a specific example of when Sarah demonstrated strong execution - the Q3 campaign launch."
Second AI response: Better, more specific
Your refinement: "Good. Now adjust the development section. Instead of 'needs to improve strategic thinking,' focus on 'opportunities to contribute to strategic discussions.'"
Third AI response: Actually sounds like you, actually helpful
The skill: Not expecting perfection on round one. Knowing how to guide refinement through clear feedback. Your perimenopausal brain has forced you to practice this daily.
Skill 5: Critical Verification (Knowing What Needs Your Eyes On It)
What it is: The ability to discern what you can trust and what requires your verification before using.
Why AI needs it: AI is confident even when it's wrong. It makes up facts. It misses nuance. It doesn't understand consequences.
How your perimenopausal brain is training you:
You're second-guessing yourself more. You're double-checking things you used to do automatically. That email you almost sent? You read it three more times before hitting send.
That heightened caution? That's not dysfunction. That's calibrated risk assessment.
You're developing stronger metacognition - awareness of your own thinking processes. You know when to trust your judgment and when to verify.
Example:
AI gives you financial data: Verify the numbers against your source documents
AI writes a sensitive email: Check for tone, missing context, potential misinterpretation
AI creates a project plan: Verify realistic timelines against your team's actual capacity
AI summarizes research: Check sources, look for what it might have missed
The skill: Knowing your role is quality control and strategic judgment, not blind acceptance.
Research insight: Increased risk aversion and careful decision-making during perimenopause isn't a bug - it's an adaptive response to changing cognitive processing. (Source: Jacobs EG, et al. "Reorganization of functional networks during the menopause transition." Brain Connectivity, 2016)
Your brain is teaching you to be a better manager of AI.
Why These 5 Skills Matter More Than "Prompt Engineering"
Most AI training teaches you to be a better typist.
"Use this template."
"Add 'act as an expert.'"
"Include role, task, format."
That's not wrong. But it's not enough.
Because here's the truth: Perfect syntax with poor judgment gets poor results.
These 5 skills - chunking, root cause analysis, clear communication, iterative refinement, and critical verification - these are judgment skills.
And judgment is what separates "AI gave me generic garbage" from "AI made me 10x more effective."
The managers getting promoted for their "AI skills"? They're not prompt engineers. They're using these 5 human judgment skills to make AI powerful.
And guess what? You're already developing these skills. Not despite your perimenopausal brain changes, but because of them.
The Assessment: Where Are You Strong? Where Can You Improve?
Most women I work with are shocked to discover they're already strong in 3-4 of these skills.
The challenge isn't learning from scratch. It's:
- Recognizing which skills you already have
- Identifying which ONE skill, if you strengthened it, would make the biggest difference
- Practicing that skill systematically until it's automatic
That's why I created the 5 Skills Assessment.
It's a 10-minute evaluation that shows you:
- Your current strength in each of the 5 skills
- Which skill is your biggest opportunity
- Specific practices to strengthen your weakest area
- How to leverage your strongest skills with AI
Most women discover they're better at this than they thought. The perimenopausal brain changes they've been fighting? Those are training them for exactly these skills.
What Comes After the Assessment
Once you understand where you're strong and where you need development, the real work begins.
Because knowing the 5 skills isn't the same as mastering them.
Knowing you need to improve at "chunking" doesn't tell you:
- How to break down a complex project when you're overwhelmed
- Which tasks to chunk and which to do holistically
- How to chunk when you don't know what you don't know
- What to do when your chunks are still too big
- How to recognize when you've chunked too small and created more complexity
That's the difference between awareness and mastery.
The awareness: Free, in this article and the assessment
The mastery: That's what the course teaches
The Course: From Awareness to Mastery
The GenX Advantage AI Mastery Course (launching Spring 2026) takes you from "I understand these 5 skills" to "I use them automatically to make AI powerful."
What it includes:
Module 1: Diagnostic Deep Dive
Detailed assessment of your current skill levels, personalized analysis of your cognitive strengths, identification of your highest-leverage skill to develop
Module 2-6: Skill-by-Skill Mastery
Each of the 5 skills gets a full module with frameworks, practice exercises, real-world scenarios, common mistakes and how to fix them, skill-stacking techniques
Module 7: Integration
How to use all 5 skills together for complex projects, advanced AI workflows for experienced professionals, building sustainable AI habits that work with your brain
Module 8: Industry Applications
Specific use cases for your role (management, project delivery, strategic planning, team leadership), customized prompt libraries for your work
Bonus: The Perimenopause Advantage
Understanding your cognitive changes, working WITH your brain instead of against it, when to push and when to accommodate, optimizing your work environment
Plus:
- Live group coaching sessions
- Private community of women mastering these skills together
- Lifetime access to course materials and updates
- Certificate of completion
Your Next Step
You have three options:
Option 1: Do nothing.
Keep feeling behind. Keep watching younger colleagues advance. Keep thinking you're "too old" or "not technical enough."
Option 2: Try to figure it out alone.
Spend months on random AI tutorials that don't quite fit. Waste time on prompts that don't work. Wonder why you're not getting the results everyone else seems to get.
Option 3: Start today with what you already have.
Take the 5 Skills Assessment (10 minutes, free). Discover which skills you're already strong in. Identify your biggest opportunity. Get one specific practice to try this week.
Then decide: Do you want to master these skills on your own timeline, or do you want a structured path?
Either way, you'll be further ahead than you are today.
Your perimenopausal brain isn't holding you back from AI. It's preparing you for it.
The question is: Are you ready to leverage that advantage?
About the Author
Kathryn Yglecias is a former broadcaster and AI transformation consultant who specializes in helping women 40+ leverage their experience and brain changes to master AI. She's the founder of The GenX Advantage, a community and learning platform for women who refuse to be left behind.
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