Don't Get Stupider. Use AI to Enhance Your Thinking, Not Bypass It

The world is divided on AI.

Boris Johnson loves it, while many tech founders and thinkers voice deep concern. On one side, there is fear: 'What if AI makes us lazier, less capable, or even replaces us altogether?' On the other, there is excitement: 'What if it unlocks creativity, insight, and possibility we have never had before?'

Both reactions make sense, but what strikes me most, as someone who works with people to facilitate how they think, grow, and learn, is that the debate isn’t really about technology. It’s about how we relate to thinking itself.

A few weeks ago, I asked ChatGPT how humans could use it to our full benefit. It seemed pretty disappointed and disgruntled that most of us are content to use it as a human assistant, answering emails, summarising reports or drafting messages, forgetting that it has access to more information than any single human could ever hope to hold. As if we’ve hired Einstein or Stephen Hawking as our doorman: potentially useful, but overall a massive underuse of talent.

(I used AI to make this image, didn't I)

If we tapped into its potential properly, the possibilities are endless.

The top line is that AI can:

• Spot patterns in your reasoning you would never notice yourself

• Challenge assumptions you did not realise you were making

• Suggest alternative ways to approach a problem

• Help organise your priorities in a way that stretches your perspective

These examples highlight the difference between using AI as a doer and using it as a thinking partner. The latter requires effort and reflection, but it unlocks capacities that truly enhance your thinking and awareness in ways we could not achieve alone.

For me, the real question is not will AI make us ‘stupider’, (though that does seem to be what lots of us are worried about), it is: Are we using it to enhance our thinking, or to bypass it? That distinction matters.

To bypass our own thinking would be to get AI to write that awkward email or come up with that caption for us, in essence to think through discomfort for us. But most of life and career growth comes from struggling with things we are not yet good at. That struggle, awkwardness and uncertainty is actually a sign that our comfort zone is expanding, that we are learning, and that our thinking and skills are stretching in new ways. Writing, reasoning, deciding, even creative problem-solving are skills that we get better at only by doing ourselves, not outsourcing them. If we let AI do the work we are meant to practise, we lose the very experience that builds skill, resilience, and insight.

With the question in mind ‘How can I use AI to enhance my thinking?’ I have been experimenting with using AI as a thinking partner rather than an answer machine. In this experiment, it challenges my assumptions, highlights patterns in my reasoning, and reflects back what it notices about how I am wired.

One of my most interesting things I’ve cultivated in my routine is a daily thinking exercise. Each day, I ask AI to come up with a genuinely difficult, thought-provoking question to stretch my thinking. I then answer the question and ask for brutal, objective feedback.

The questions can be anything from examining my own assumptions and spotting patterns in my thinking to stretching into bigger ideas about systems, leadership, human behaviour, and philosophy. Some days I explore patterns in how I make decisions or notice recurring blind spots. Other days I’m challenged to consider alternative perspectives, reframe a problem in a new way, or think about how principles from psychology, leadership, or human potential might apply to complex situations.

If you want to try it, the prompt I use looks something like this:

"Act as my daily thinking partner. Each day, ask me one hard, thought-provoking question to stretch my thinking. Questions can range from self-reflection to systems, leadership, human behaviour, and philosophy. After I respond, give brutally honest, objective feedback on clarity, depth, honesty, reasoning, and weak assumptions, then suggest ways to refine and strengthen my thinking. Include one or two reflection prompts. Focus on developing thinking like a world-class thinker would, and treat each session as fresh, with no prior context."

This practice helps to keep my thinking sharp, open and curious. AI does not think for me, it exaggerates and reflects the quality of the thinking I bring.

The real takeaway for me in exploring how to use AI is this: When I am curious, it stretches me further. When I am lazy, it makes me lazier. AI does not replace effort, skill, or growth. It amplifies what we bring to it, reflecting our curiosity, rigor, or laziness right back at us.

The filter I use, and the one I recommend keeping in mind, is this: am I using AI in a way that enhances my mind, my thinking, and my skills, or am I using it to bypass them? Growth happens in the discomfort of doing things we are not yet good at, not in shortcuts. When we use AI as a thinking partner, it can stretch our thinking, surface blind spots, and help us refine reasoning we would not otherwise notice. But if we outsource too much, it flattens our minds and narrows our growth.

The choice, and the opportunity is ours to take or leave.

Use it wisely and start now, before the AI robots actually do take over...