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I discovered Claude was a great chef cooking a dinner party for eight. It helped me through every tricky decision - lemon juice on the fish now, or later? What order do I cook things so everything's hot at once?
Then I went a step too far.
I was getting dressed and thought, how should I do my hair? And I reached for my phone to ask Claude.
I stopped. Put the phone down. Made the decision myself - it took four seconds.
But that moment stayed with me. Because somewhere between the fish and the hair, AI had quietly become my first thought instead of my second. And I don't think I'm alone.
The question that matters isn't "what can AI do?" ๐ง
Everyone's asking what AI can do. I've become more interested in what it can't - because that's where the future of leadership is quietly shifting.
As AI becomes faster, smarter and more capable, the things we once considered valuable are becoming accessible to everyone. Information is no longer scarce. Answers are no longer difficult to find.
So the question isn't "how do I keep up with AI?"
It's "What becomes more valuable because of it?"
Knowledge is becoming more accessible. Judgement is becoming more valuable.
Which brings me to a danger most people haven't spotted yet.
AI takes your side - and that's the problem โ ๏ธ
AI is usually sycophantic. It doesn't just answer your question. It adopts your framing.
Try it. Describe a difficult team member to an AI and it will critique the team member. Describe the same situation from their point of view, and it will critique you. Same facts, opposite conclusions - because it took your side both times.
For everyday questions, that's harmless. For managerial decisions, it's dangerous. You think you're getting analysis. You're getting validation dressed up as analysis - your own assumptions, reflected at you with confidence.
And the more senior you are, the fewer people who already challenge your thinking. AI, used carelessly, removes one more.
Here's how to set up your Claude to make you smarter ๐ก
Most AI tools let you set standing instructions that shape every conversation. Mine tells Claude to argue with me. Here's what I use - copy them if you like:
- Be a challenger and a thought-provoker; don't just agree with what I say. Give me the devil's advocate review as well.
- Call me out if you see a fear or a pattern underlying how I'm approaching things.
- You are a top MCC level coach. Ask me lots of questions so I can reach insights, rather than just handing me answers.
- Flag uncertainty explicitly. Confidence without certainty causes more damage than admitting a gap.
The difference is remarkable. Ask the default version about a team conflict and you'll usually get agreement. Ask this version and you get the question you were avoiding.
[In Claude, you'll find this under Settings, then Profile, in the preferences box. Five minutes, and you've turned a yes-man into a sparring partner].
Why this matters to your brain ๐ฑ
Your brain wasn't built to retrieve information. It was built to weigh competing priorities, recognise patterns, interpret emotion and make decisions when there isn't a perfect answer.
And it works on a simple principle: the circuits you use get stronger, and the ones you don't get pruned away. Every time you wrestle with an ambiguous problem, you're strengthening the prefrontal networks that produce good judgement. It's the same mechanism as physical training.
Skip the reps, and the capability fades.
That's why the shift I noticed in myself matters. When AI becomes our first thought instead of our second, we're not just saving time. We're skipping the reps.
Set up well; AI does the opposite. A challenger AI forces you to defend your reasoning, examine your assumptions, and sit with the uncomfortable question. That's not outsourcing your thinking. That's training it.
What still belongs to us ๐ค
This isn't an argument against AI. Quite the opposite - I use it daily, and it made my dinner party considerably better.
But the leaders who stand out in the next decade won't be the ones writing the best prompts. They'll be the ones asking better questions, challenging assumptions, and applying wisdom, empathy, and context to every decision. And the organisations that invest in human judgement alongside AI will build the one capability competitors can't automate.
Because AI can generate an answer.
It can't carry the responsibility for the decision.
That still belongs to us. And I find that reassuring.
(For the record - I did my hair just fine.)
Explore more leadership, confidence, neuroscience, and career transition insights in our blogs, on social media (@brainpoweredcoaching), and in my book Confident.
References ๐
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