“Most teams leave the vast majority of their innovation potential on the table.”

If you treat artificial intelligence like an oracle, you’ll likely be disappointed. But treat it like a teammate, and Jeremy Utley and Kian Gohar say you may be surprised by how useful a collaborator it can be. Utley, an adjunct professor at the Stanford d.school, and Gohar, a bestselling author and futurist, have studied how teams can use AI to generate more creative ideas and solve problems. Their research shows that tools like ChatGPT can unlock new possibilities, but only when teams know how to work with them. In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Utley and Gohar join Matt Abrahams to discuss how to move beyond treating AI like a magic 8-ball and start using it as a creative partner for brainstorming and innovation.

Takeaways:

• Treat AI like a teammate, not an oracle. AI becomes more useful when you actively collaborate with it, asking questions, building on responses, and using it as a partner rather than expecting one perfect answer.
• Better AI collaboration can unlock better ideas. Integrating AI into brainstorming and problem-solving can help teams expand their thinking, generate more possibilities, and tap into creative potential they might otherwise leave unexplored.

Activity:

• Give AI a seat at the table. During your next brainstorm, treat AI as another member of the team. Ask it to contribute ideas, challenge the group’s assumptions, or suggest a direction no one has considered yet.

Episode Reference Links:

• Jeremy Utley
• Jeremy's Book: Ideaflow
• Kian Gohar
• Kian's Book: Competing In The New World Of Work

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• Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Chapters:

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:43) - AI and Problem-Solving
• (04:13) - What the Research Revealed
• (05:18) - Why Better AI Takes More Work
• (08:40) - The FIXIT Method
• (13:10) - Better Conversations With AI
• (16:07) - Making AI Critique Itself
• (18:45) - The Final Three Questions
• (24:35) - Conclusion

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