Who is Anthony Washington Sr.?

Anthony Washington Sr. is a U.S. Army and Maryland Army National Guard veteran, a coach and official of more than twenty years, and the founder of After Today, LLC. He builds leadership training, athletic recruiting education, and people-first AI systems for student-athletes, families, schools, and organizations. He is based in Pennsylvania and works primarily across Pennsylvania and Maryland.

What does Anthony Washington Sr. do?

He works in three connected areas: athletic recruiting education that gives student-athletes and families a repeatable daily process, leadership training for first-time supervisors and public-sector leaders, and people-first AI and workflow implementation for organizations. He also speaks and runs workshops for schools, teams, and districts.

What is athletic recruiting infrastructure?

Athletic recruiting infrastructure is the repeatable system a family or program uses to manage recruiting — film, academics, communication with coaches, eligibility tracking, and follow-up — instead of relying on exposure events and luck. Anthony teaches recruiting as infrastructure so progress comes from a daily practice rather than a seasonal scramble.

What does people-first AI implementation mean?

People-first AI implementation means adopting AI to improve the work without displacing or sidelining the people who do it. In practice that means starting from the actual workflow, keeping a human accountable for decisions, training staff on the tools they will use, and setting guardrails before scale — not buying software and hoping the team adapts.

Who are Anthony's programs designed for?

Student-athletes and their parents, high school and grassroots coaches, athletic programs, schools and districts, first-time supervisors, public-sector leaders, and organizations that want leadership training or help implementing AI without leaving employees behind.

Does Anthony Washington Sr. provide leadership training?

Yes. He trains first-time supervisors and team leads on the first ninety days, difficult conversations, accountability, and building trust, drawing on his military service, public-sector supervision, and coaching experience. Training is delivered as courses, workshops, and organizational consulting.

How can a school, district, or organization work with Anthony?

Schools, districts, and organizations can book speaking engagements and workshops, bring in leadership training for supervisors and staff, or engage him on recruiting support and AI and workflow implementation. Start on the contact page and say which of those you need.

How can I book Anthony Washington Sr. to speak?

Send an inquiry through the contact page with your event date, audience, format, and location. The speaking page lists topics, session formats, and the audiences he speaks to most often.

Where is Anthony Washington Sr. based?

He is based in Pennsylvania and works primarily across Pennsylvania and Maryland, with virtual sessions available beyond that area.

Home › Blog › AI Discernment

AI Discernment

ai · September 23, 2026

Artificial intelligence is getting better at giving us answers.

Artificial intelligence is getting better at giving us answers.

That creates a different problem.

We still have to know when the answer is worth trusting.

That is AI discernment.

Not knowing every model.

Not memorizing every technical term.

Not becoming a programmer.

Discernment is the ability to look at what AI produces and ask:

Is this accurate?

Is this complete?

What is missing?

What is being assumed?

What needs verification?

What should never be delegated to AI in the first place?

That skill is becoming more important than simply knowing how to prompt.

A Good Answer Can Still Be Wrong

AI can sound confident.

It can organize information beautifully.

It can provide sources.

It can summarize complicated subjects.

It can make weak information look polished.

That is exactly why discernment matters.

Presentation quality is not the same thing as truth.

A professional-looking answer can still contain outdated information, weak assumptions, incorrect citations, or a conclusion that does not fit the situation.

The better AI becomes at sounding convincing, the more important human judgment becomes.

Do Not Outsource Your Judgment

Use AI to think with you.

Research.

Compare.

Organize.

Draft.

Challenge assumptions.

Identify gaps.

But do not quietly hand over responsibility for decisions that still belong to you.

That is especially true when the decision affects:

people,

money,

health,

employment,

legal rights,

organizational risk,

or someone’s reputation.

AI can help you reach a decision.

It should not make you stop thinking.

Verification Is Part of Using AI

One of the biggest mistakes people make is treating verification like evidence that AI failed.

It is not.

Verification is part of the process.

If the answer matters, check it.

Go to the original source.

Read the policy.

Open the study.

Confirm the date.

Review the numbers.

Ask whether the information still applies.

That is not distrust.

That is responsible use.

AI Readiness Requires Discernment

Organizations keep talking about AI adoption.

I am more interested in AI readiness.

Because an organization is not ready for AI simply because employees have access to it.

People need to know:

when AI is appropriate,

when human review is required,

what information should not be entered,

how sources should be verified,

who owns the final decision,

and what happens when AI is wrong.

That is where discernment becomes organizational.

The New Skill Is Knowing When to Stop

Sometimes the best use of AI is knowing when not to use it.

Sometimes the answer requires lived experience.

Sometimes it requires context the system does not have.

Sometimes it requires empathy.

Sometimes it requires accountability.

Sometimes it requires a professional who is legally or ethically responsible for the outcome.

And sometimes you already know enough to make the decision yourself.

The goal is not to put AI into everything.

The goal is to know where AI adds value.

That requires discernment.

Understand. Navigate. Construct.

Understand what AI can do.

Understand what it cannot reliably do.

Navigate the information carefully.

Verify what matters.

Then construct something useful from it.

That is a much stronger relationship with AI than simply asking better questions.

Because the future will not belong only to people who know how to use artificial intelligence.

It will belong to people who know when artificial intelligence deserves to be believed.

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