I’m the furthest thing from an expert on iNaturalist tools, so take this with as much salt as you like. I’m new here and still trying to figure out the best way to deal with this, but I’ve found these sorts of conversations helpful so here’s my 2 cents’ worth.
If I don’t start typing immediately the system usually kicks out some ID in short order, but I’ve had a few obvious errors (taxa that don’t exist in the location where the photo was taken being the most common issue) that quickly taught me to never take it without some other supporting evidence. The AI-suggested ID is a starting point and the rest of the process is a learning experience. For taxa I’m experienced with I count myself as a valid expert and go straight to species. Taxa I’m comfortable figuring out I’ll usually go to species after digging through some guides, keys or or web pages - I’ve started adding notes if I’m not confident (should probably go back to a couple of older posts). For example, I have a passing understanding of butterfly ID that I picked up learning to identify the butterflies I encountered near a previous home. I don’t know a lot about moths, but the structures are more or less the same so I can work through a key. I have a moth photo submitted that is in the same group (litter moths) identified by the AI but, after digging around and figuring out what’s found where and some other details (and comparing photos from others on iNaturalist) submitted it as a species in a different genus than suggested by the AI. I am expecting one of three responses - agreement, agreement with genus but not species, agreement at some higher but not genus taxonomic level. That assumes that I get any response at all, of course, and I get that littler moths are probably an acquired taste with a limited following. On the other hand, I may be way off base or have a useless image that lacks some key feature, I suppose.
I have a bunch of photos (and recorded bird songs) about which I’m less certain and haven’t landed on how best to do them in a manner that’s most likely to get some sort of instructive response. Some of these I will inevitably end up posting to genus, family or order. My experience with bumble bees (the taxon that got me to join iNaturalist as a learning experience) has persuaded me that if you want responses, the way you post matters, at least for some taxa. Still haven’t figured out how, exactly (obviously - I have not yet had a response to any bumble bee submission).
Some of this stuff relates to a very helpful response I received from @janetwright in another thread: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-if-nobody-ids-your-observation/13315/39?u=pmeisenheimer .