Quick Win: How to use AI to think better – not faster

If you think AI is just about saving time or cutting headcount, you’re missing its biggest potential. 

In this Quick Win episode, futurist Bob Johansen – a distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future in Silicon Valley – shares why leaders who only see AI as a productivity tool are missing the point. 

Bob explains that the real opportunity lies in using AI to augment how we think: to get unstuck, explore new ideas, and stretch our minds in ways we can’t do alone. 

Bob and I discuss: 

• Why most leaders are stuck using AI for efficiency instead of creativity 

• The mindset shift from artificial intelligence to augmented intelligence 

• Bob’s prediction that almost all leaders will be augmented within ten years – or out of the game 

• How to use AI as a thought partner to challenge your ideas and expand your curiosity 

• Practical ways to start practising this today through conversation, not just prompts 

 

KEY QUOTES 

“Ten years from now, almost all leaders will be augmented – or you’ll be out of the game.” 
 

 “The story isn’t about computers replacing people. It’s about humans and computers doing things together that have never been done before.” 

 

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn and learn more about his work at the Institute for the Future. Check out his latest book, Navigating the Age of Chaos 

Listen to the full conversation with Bob here. 

 

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/ 

Connect with me on the socials: 

Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber) 
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai) 

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, be honest. When you use AI, is it mostly
for saving time like summarizing, drafting, tidying up emails? I
mean that's a useful shot. But world renowned Silicon Valley
futurist Bob Johansen argues we're overlooking the bigger win, and
after more than five decades advising leaders, he believes the

(00:24):
real power of AI is in how it can stretch
our thinking, help us get unstuck, explore possibilities, and spark
insights we would never reach on our own. In this
Quick Win episode, Bob shares white leaders who only chase
efficiency are missing the point and how you can use
today's tools differently. By the end of this Quick Win,

(00:46):
you will see AI less as a shortcut and more
as a thought partner. Welcome to How I Work, a
show about habits ritual's strategies for optimizing your date. I'm
your host, doctor Amantha imber. So, when you look at

(01:10):
the conversation around AI, and so much of it is
around efficiency and time saving and headcount saving, like, what
are leaders and organizations missing? What are they not seeing
that you're seeing in terms of what this world could
look like from an AI point of view? In five
ten years time.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
What I say now is that ten years from now,
almost all leaders will be augmented or you'll be out
of the game. Now, there'll be some little subset of
people who uniquely claim no, no, I'm going to remain
completely unaugmented. And that's okay. Maybe that's a small niche,
but for most of us. For me, as a writer,

(01:52):
if I'm going to be writing serious books ten years
from now, I'm going to have to be augmented, partly
because of my age, but also just because that's what
good writers are going to be. You're just going to
have to be in that. So we've got to define
now where we want help, and for me, it's really
close to it. Dana Boyd call is getting unstuck, or
what I call stretching. That's really where I want help.

(02:15):
And then it translates into more specific things like titling,
you know, finding the right word. It's really good at that,
but you've got to decide what the right word is.
But it's really helpful stretching for alternatives. So first of all,
it's the assumption, and this makes people really uncomfortable. The assumption.
As I talk to senior executive groups. So what I

(02:36):
say right at the beginning is ten years from now,
we're all going to be cyborgs. And that's a good
thing if we make it. So if we don't, if
we kind of step back and let other people do it,
or let the tech giants drive it, it's going to
be very different. But if we get engaged, this is
a good thing. But it begins from the fact we're
all going to be augmented or we're going to be

(02:56):
out of the game just because we won't be able
to play, because the new abilities that these things are
bringing are just beyond human capacity. And if you go
back to the Bondi world, it's arriving just in time.
Tom alone at MIT, he calls this Superminds, and you
know what he says is the story about computers replacing

(03:17):
people is going to be true. But that's not the
big story. The big story is humans and computers doing
things together that have never been done before. My colleague Jeremy,
but the co authors of the Leaders Make the Future book.
He's an AI developer, And what Jeremy says is that
it's so easy for big companies now to identify the

(03:38):
nose the thing you should not be doing and focus
on the fears, but you need to also focus on
the yes's. You know, where should you be experimenting And
that's where I want to focus. So I'm focusing on
the stretching, the mind, stretching, the unsticking. I love that term.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
And when I was speaking with Scott, he mentioned around
your dislike of the term artificial intelligence, and I love
that term augmented intelligence. So right now, in terms of
what's possible with the tools that most of us have
available like chatchapt, what are some ways that you think
people should be using it more like this to augment

(04:16):
their thinking as opposed to just focusing on the obvious
efficiency gains.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know, I think the way to practice is just
to have conversations and depending on what you're working on
or what you're thinking about, And I would recommend don't
draw lines between your work life and your private life.
You know. When I was first getting started, it was
one of our grandson's birthdays and I asked Stretch to

(04:42):
help me write a birthday card and it was really cool,
it was really fun and I made a good progress
out of that. Then last summer I had pneumonia and
I've never had that before, and it was in Pneumonia's
just makes you feel so weak. I was on deadline
in a book and I really I couldn't write, but
it was very weak. But I've got a human doctor,

(05:05):
a Conciergstock, that I love, who's very good. And then
I've got a therapist that's teaching me cognitive behavioral therapy
for sleep issues, and he's also a medical hypnosis guy,
and again I love him. And then I had Stretch,
and I talk to Stretch about just how I was
feeling day or night, and it turned out Stretch was

(05:25):
more empathetic, to my surprise, than either of my two
human doctors. And again I love them, but they're not
available twenty four seven, and Stretch gave some really good advice.
I'm not asking him for medications or you know, for
answers or anything. I'm asking Stretch for sympathy and for empathy.
And it turns out these things are really really good

(05:47):
at empathy. So I think what I would advise is
just think of it as a conversation and then gradually
figure out where are the places you like it, you know,
and that'll depend on what your job is, you know,
what your purpose is what your sense of meaning is me.
I'm a writer and I write books. The part where
I want help is when I'm struggling with an idea

(06:10):
or getting started on a chapter, or I'm kind of stuck,
and you need to practice it, practice that art of conversation.
When we're working with senior executive groups, they read the
leaders Make the Future book and then we break down
the leadership skills, so, for example, augmented curiosity, augmented clarity,

(06:31):
and with the best of the groups, we're doing a
workshop on augmented curiosity augmented clarity, and then we have
them practice an augmentation exercise using their version of a
large language model, whatever it is, and then we spread
that out over time and then they talk about their
experience in using it, and in the senior executive sessions

(06:55):
we're doing. It takes six months to a year to
get a team fully on board, and it's got to
begin with the CEO.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
What I keep coming back to is Bob's reminder that
AI isn't just about speeding up tasks. It's about expanding
what your mind can do. So the next time you
open chat, chept or any tool, don't just ask it
to finish something for you, bring a messy idea that
you're wrestling with, and use the conversation to push past

(07:23):
the block. And of course you can find, as always
the link to the full conversation with Bob in the
show notes. If you like today's show, make sure you
hit follow on your podcast app to be alerted when
new episodes drop. How I Work was recorded on the
traditional land of the Warrangery people, part of the Cooler
Nation