Thinking is competitive advantage

Artificial Intelligence is set to become one of the greatest productivity tools businesses have ever seen. Ironically, its greatest value comes from rewarding the people who think the best rather than those who simply use it the most.

Every credible AI expert reinforces AI is just another tool. When used properly, it is potentially very powerful and can provide some excellent value — but it is not a holistic solution to every problem your business faces. As AI becomes more efficient, it creates more time for humans to think more deeply and become more capable.

You must maintain the “human in the loop.” Unless thinking and guidance are properly connected, a business can never achieve necessary alignment.

In other words, does the AI tool do what you need it to — or meant it to — in your organization? You will only know if you set an objective, test the tool, review the results and compare them with what you intended to achieve.

At the foundation of effective use of an AI tool, marketers must apply their two superpowers: curiosity (it broadens possibilities) and skepticism (improving your confidence in the answers). Together they produce better decisions.

The challenge is developing a deep understanding of what customers truly value and how your product or service improves their daily lives.

This is where being curious helps marketers consider all of the reasons and situations a customer may be in. And when data is gathered, the application of skepticism builds confidence in decision making because you are validating the data and ensuring it is providing the relevance and completeness required.

When you add an AI tool to your resource kit, you can certainly comb through data faster, but you still need to confirm the assessment is accurate. Just as a financial auditor pulls a sample of financial records to assess, users of AI should pull samples of the results and test to confirm for accuracy.

As a CMC, this is how I have trained in and approach using AI in my own consulting work. The greatest value doesn’t come from the first answer. It comes from challenging it, refining it and using it to sharpen my own thinking.

Simply outsourcing your thinking to AI will not serve you well in the long run. In a recent report, the esteemed law school at the University of Chicago announced laptops or smartphones will not be allowed during classes, so AI cannot be accessed by students completing their law degree. My takeaway is before students can use AI effectively, they must first learn how to think independently. The lesson for business leaders is the same.

Please consider this three-step process for using AI selectively and accurately while avoiding embarrassing mistakes:

First, the objective must be set, so you know what you are evaluating the outcomes against. The competitive advantage won’t belong to those with the best AI tools. It will belong to those who ask the best questions.

Second, don’t just accept the output, you must continue to consider the relevance of what was provided. AI can accelerate analysis but it cannot replace judgment. Apply your own judgment, which is the sum of your training, education and life experiences.

Third, validate. The old saying “trust but verify” is appropriate to apply at this point. Check any sources your AI tool provides to ensure they are real. This is the message at the bottom of the page in ChatGPT: “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.”

Remember this is one data source. There are more inputs required.

When you consider the concept of being “data-driven” I believe it is more important to be human-driven. Leading companies seek to understand the human behaviour that created the data they analyze. For example, reviewing sales results is a lagging indicator of performance. Understanding the human behaviour that resulted in the sale can be a more predictive indicator of future performance.

This is where your focus should be.

After all, if everyone has access to the same AI tools and asks the same questions, what will make you different or distinctive?

Tim’s bits: Several recent articles discussed the potential loss of critical thinking skills for humans with an overreliance on AI tools. Effective application of AI tools can guard against this on a broad scale. I encourage you to implement this approach in your own winning game plan.

Tim Kist is a certified management consultant, authorized by law, and a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Manitoba

tim@tk3consulting.ca