Is AI Making Us Faster — or Just Less Curious?
Quick answer: AI can strengthen critical thinking when we use it to question, research and test ideas. The problem starts when we use it to read, interpret, form opinions and make decisions for us. Access to an answer is useful. Understanding why that answer matters is still our job.
I use AI every day. I think it’s incredible. But I’m starting to wonder what happens when we get so used to having an instant answer that we stop being curious enough to form our own.
We’re seeing this more and more.
We send a strategy. A report. An email following a conversation. And instead of the recipient taking the time to read it, digest it and think about it, the whole thing gets dropped into ChatGPT.
Then back comes a list of questions and “feedback”. Often about things we literally discussed yesterday or answered in the email.
And I find myself thinking: Did you even read it?!
Having access to an answer isn't the same as knowing something
Understanding requires participation.
Read the email. Look at the report. Listen to the podcast. Follow the reference. Ask the question. Sit with the idea. Stay interested beyond the point where you technically have an answer.
We’ve started confusing getting information with thinking.
Critical thinking needs friction
Why don’t I agree with this? What am I missing? What’s the argument for the other side? Does this apply to my business? What happens if I’m wrong?
AI can help you interrogate those questions.
But if your default is simply: “Here’s this thing attached. What do you think?”
…you’ve skipped the most valuable part.
What do YOU think?
We don’t want to reach a point where ChatGPT says “computer says no” and we simply accept that the computer must know best.
Business owners still need to understand their own business
This is the bit I find incredibly concerning.
If AI is reading the advice, interpreting the strategy, forming the opinion and recommending the decision, how much of your own business do you understand?
You can execute an enormous amount very quickly without understanding why you’re doing any of it.
And that’s a VERY dangerous way to run a business.
You still need to understand the decisions behind your brand strategy, marketing strategy, positioning and customer experience well enough to challenge them.
At some point, you still need to be the person driving the car.
The best use of AI is to create more time to think
I’m pro-AI, don’t get me wrong. Mine transcribes meetings, organises notes, automates mundane tasks and turns the 47 thoughts firing around my brain into something another human can understand.
I want AI to give me more time to think.
More time to read. Notice. Question. Learn. Disagree. Get curious. Come up with the weird idea that hasn’t been done before.
As AI makes average execution easier, original thinking becomes even more valuable.
That matters enormously for branding and marketing. When everyone has access to the same tools, your point of view, judgement, creativity and understanding become the differentiator.
The opportunity of AI surely isn’t to remove ourselves from thinking.
Use AI to outsource the mundane. Don’t outsource your brain.
If you want epic creative humans helping you think harder about your brand, positioning and marketing, talk to us at George Design.
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Absolutely. AI is incredibly useful for admin, research, analysis and repetitive work. Business owners still need to understand their own strategy and decisions well enough to judge the quality of what AI produces.
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Step one: read the work yourself.
Understand the thinking, the rationale and the recommendations. Form your own opinion first.
Then use AI if you want help interrogating something, exploring a question or testing an idea. But the feedback you give should ultimately come from you.
AI doesn’t have the full context behind every conversation, decision or recommendation, which means it can easily generate questions that have already been answered or suggestions that pull the work away from the agreed strategy.
Use AI to help you think. Don’t let it think on your behalf.
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Use it to research, question assumptions, explore different perspectives and help organise your thinking. Then make the decision yourself. The goal is to become better informed, not less involved. As a business owner, your judgement, experience and understanding of your business still matter enormously.
