AI as a thinking partner for decisions: brainstorm alternatives, red-team your favored option, structure a decision framework. Not a substitute for judgment. The failure mode is asking the AI to make the decision — it will comply, and the answer will be shaped by its training rather than your context.
- 01Structure an AI-assisted decision session.
- 02State the tasks AI does well vs. badly.
- 03Recognize decision surrender.
What works
Ask for alternatives you missed. Ask for arguments against your favored option (steelman critique). Ask for the framework someone with a specific expertise would apply. Ask for the historical cases that inform the decision. All of these expand your thinking without displacing it.
What does not
'Which should I choose?' is the wrong prompt. The AI does not know your risk tolerance, your relationships, your history, or your values. It will produce a plausible recommendation shaped by web-average judgments — often exactly wrong for a specific context.
- AI expands your options; you make the decision.
- Delegating the decision itself surrenders judgment to training-data averages.