AI Can't Save You From Unclear Thinking
AI rewards business owners who think deeply about their business systems and exposes those who don't. The gap is getting wider.
Over the past year, I've been watching business owners adopt AI tools. I'm seeing two distinct groups emerge:
The first group uses AI to think deeper about their business. They're using it to understand their processes better, identify inefficiencies, and then assist with execution so they stay focused on strategy and leadership.
The second group uses AI to avoid thinking. They're prompting AI to run their business, generating oodles of new content, workflows. But when you dig into their business, it's clear they don't actually understand what they've built. They're moving fast, but also drowning in overwhelm. They're also more distracted by the ‘shiny outputs’ of AI. More on that soon.
The gap between these two groups is widening. It's a thinking gap—one that's always been there. AI just accelerates it.
In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman describes two systems of thinking. System 1 is fast and automatic. System 2 is slow and deliberate. The trap with AI is it lets you stay in System 1, generating polished outputs without engaging the hard work of System 2.
AI exposes unclear thinking
Recently, I built a goals tracking web app using Claude AI. It was incredibly fast to spin up, until I realised I had to keep slowing down to actually think through what I was creating. This is where Thinking, Fast and Slow became real for me.
The whole process required me to think deeply: Where does the data live? How do these pieces connect? How does the AI interact with authentication and data storage? What's the user experience going to look like? What are we actually trying to achieve here?
It made me think more like a project manager and gave me a deeper appreciation for people who develop technical applications and their frustrations with non-dev PMs.
A recent editorial in Nature Reviews Bioengineering titled "Writing is thinking" made this point: Writing compels us to think. Not in the chaotic, non-linear way our minds typically wander, but in a structured, intentional manner. Hand the writing to AI, and the thinking goes with it.
The same is true for business. When your systems are fuzzy in your own head, AI just makes that fuzziness look professional. You end up with workflows that seem finished but break under pressure because they weren't built around how your business actually works
Two recent studies reveal this pattern:
Anthropic analysed thousands of conversations and found that polished AI outputs make users less likely to question reasoning or catch missing context. But users who iterated showed 5.6 times more critical thinking.
MIT measured brain activity while people wrote essays using ChatGPT versus their own thinking. The ChatGPT group showed the weakest neural connectivity and lowest engagement—what researchers called "cognitive debt."
Business owners are using AI to speed up the tasks they've always dreaded—documenting processes, writing copy etc. Fair enough, but I’ve noticed can get lost, if they’re not intentional about it, is the creative and personalisation layer that makes their small business unique and personal.
Small businesses have personality. Big businesses don't (so they get around it with branding). This personality comes from how the founder and team think—their approach, their perspective, the character and work ethic they all bring to the business. But AI can reverse that advantage. One example to illustrate: On social media it's created a homogenisation of content, where all profiles are starting to sound the same. A decline in true individuality and authenticity.
Use AI to enhance thinking
When Anthropic studied how their own 132 engineers use Claude, they found something interesting: The engineers kept all the high-level thinking and design work for themselves. They only delegated execution.
One engineer explained: "I usually keep the high-level thinking and design. I delegate anything I can from new feature development to debugging."
Even the people building AI use it to enhance their thinking, not replace it. I think all small business owners should pay attention to this.
My current assessment (at the time of writing): The business owners that will leapfrog with AI are the ones who already understand their business deeply. They've already put in the work (pre-AI days) solidifying their processes, understanding their bottlenecks and decision points. They've invested in their team and customers. Now, AI will help them execute on their vision faster, but the strategic thinking is still theirs.
Marc Andreessen said it well: "AI is going to take people who are good at doing things and make them very good. And it's going to make people who are great at doing things and make them spectacularly great."
Some examples from our clients using AI to increase thinking include:
One business used MS Copilot to analyse internal communications and surface whether their HR policies still matched where the organisation actually is. The findings sparked real discussions about updating policies that had gone unchecked for years.
Another analysed hundreds of past phone calls with Claude to interrogated sales patterns. They updated their sales process based on a discussion led by the AI analysis, then used AI again to stress test the new approach against the previous benchmarks.
Another analysed past purchase data to identify trends and upsell opportunities. The report created the right conversations within the team to refine their strategy and increase sales.
In each case, AI helped sharpen their thinking, which led to strategic conversations and better decisions.
Applying this to your business
If you're a business owner or a leader in your organisation, here are some questions to help ensure you're using AI to think deeper, not avoid thinking:
Can you clearly explain your core business processes and why they're designed that way?
Where are you using AI to go deeper into understanding your business? Where are you using it to avoid hard thinking?
When AI builds something for you, can you evaluate if it's coherent with your strategy?
Are you measuring AI success by how much you create, or how good it is?
How would your business change if AI was removed tomorrow? Would it still function?
What are you learning from using AI, and what are you just copying without understanding?
Have you tried using AI to challenge your own patterns of thinking, or do you only use it to knock off tasks?
Could you get AI to ask you questions like a coach would, instead of just giving you answers?
What would be the best approach to train your team to use AI to enhance their own creativity and critical thinking?
Do you spend time regularly evaluating your priorities so you know what to focus on? Has AI contributed to this or cluttered your thinking?
If AI handled all your repetitive tasks tomorrow, what would you do with that time?
Thanks for reading.
By Lachlan Nicolson | Connect on Linkedin
If you're working through how to use AI thoughtfully in your business, or you're not sure where to start — we can help. At LeaderGuide, we work with business owners to clarify their thinking and build systems that actually work. We’ll connect you to experts who can help you with AI adoption, policy creation, or application development tailored to your business. Book a quick call.
