3 Ways AI Can Help You Think More Clearly

As a tech nerd and startup founder, I’m always experimenting with new technology. Playing around with the latest product is like peering through a crystal ball and seeing a glimpse of what the future might look like. There’s no technology more exciting than AI and large-language models (though perhaps I’m biased, as I’m building in this space myself).

However, while there’s so much hype about the technology and its potential, I’ve noticed that friends and peers often struggle to connect the dots between daydreaming about the future applications of AI versus how today’s products can fit into their daily life.

This mirrors what I learned during my time leading a product on the Google Assistant team: when the use cases of a service are near limitless, people actually struggle to make the mental connection to think to use the service. Creating a habit, even to use the most helpful product, is more of a hurdle than many think.

Over the past few months, I’ve intentionally looked for ways to integrate AI into my daily routine. One of my favorites is using AI as a thought partner. While anyone can use these tactics, I’ve found it quite helpful for myself as a startup founder. Days are often full of ambiguity and tough decisions, and having this way of examining my thoughts through various lenses has helped me refine my thinking. Here are three ways you can use ChatGPT to help you think more clearly:

1. Identify blind spots in a strategy

I write up a situation in as much detail as I can and provide all relevant context, as well as my planned approach. Then I ask ChatGPT to help me think through what I'm not seeing. I ask questions such as what potential unintended consequences of my strategy might be, and what the biggest risks are. I ask for a critique of the plan, and ideas to improve it. Not only does this give me useful feedback that I might not have thought of (or, at least saved me a few hours of time thinking about it), but it also helps me prepare for risks and counterarguments.

2. Outline pro’s and con’s of a decision

This is especially helpful as a startup founder, when so much of my day involves making good decisions with limited information. Similarly to identifying blind spots, I give it all of the relevant information I can think of. Then I ask it to come up with the options it thinks I have. One or two of those options usually align with the ones I’m weighing myself, so I then ask it to create a list of pro’s and con’s for each possibility. While AI won’t have the final say in what I ultimately decide to do, seeing this list laid out in front of me allows me to take a different vantage point, and see the board from a more elevated level which then allows me to make the best decision I can.

3. Cast a wide net of options

I often use ChatGPT to help me generate ideas based on a concept that I provide, and then apply my own judgment to whittle the list down. An on-the-nose example is giving it a blog post I’ve written, and then asking it to come up with 10 potential titles. I’ll normally give it a couple of examples of what I’m looking for to point it in the right direction (just like delegating any task). This is often an iterative and collaborative process, and it is important to keep pointing it in the right direction and be clear in your prompt about what a good and bad output looks like. While 9 out of 10 of its outputs might not be what you’re looking for, that last 1 might spark a great idea for you.

What are ways you’ve found AI to be most helpful? Let me know in the comments!