Developing the Right AI-First Mindset Habits: how to get smarter, not dumber with AI. 4-step framework.

The technological landscape is transforming at breakneck speed, but what determines your success in this new world isn't your mastery of the latest AI tools - it's your AI-first mindset.  

While everyone's focused on which AI applications to learn, we're neglecting something far more fundamental: the mental habits that will either propel us forward or anchor us in the past. 

Your AI mindset, the questions you habitually ask, the stories you tell yourself, and the thoughts you cultivate, it shapes your preparedness for an AI-first future more than any technical skill. The key shift isn't learning to use AI faster; it's rethinking your relationship with these tools. Instead of outsourcing your thinking, the most powerful approach is using AI as a collaborator that amplifies your uniquely human capabilities. 

Drawing from cutting-edge research, including MIT studies showing how passive AI use actually reduces brain activity, this episode provides a practical framework for effective AI collaboration. You'll discover how to preserve the creative, insightful aspects of your work while leveraging AI for refinement and enhancement. 

Through real-world examples from writing, coaching, and content creation, you'll learn specific techniques for using AI to make your thinking sharper and your work better, not to replace your intellectual skills.  

The most successful people in an AI-powered world won't be those who surrender their thinking to machines but those who become more intentional about how they think alongside their digital collaborators.  

The future belongs to those who enhance their thinking with technology, not those who outsource it.  

Transcript

Introduction to AI Mindset

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome back to ChangeWired podcast, the podcast where we unpack the human side of change, transformation, getting, building our better future selves. One insight, one change, one shift at a time. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your executive mindset bodywork coach, founder of your Best Culture. If you didn't know that, guys, I also have my own company, culture Transformation and Change Leadership Consulting, where we help leaders and companies build human-centric systems that actually change behavior and, because of that, deliver results behavior and, because of that, deliver results. Today, guys, I want us to talk about something that's been on my mind, that might be even more important than all the AI tools and technology, and that is your AI mindset. In a world where the world is moving faster than ever than at the speed that most of us can process, and it's not the technology that will leave you behind, guys, or will leave me behind. It's our own thinking, our own mindset Mindset. What is mindset? It's a set of mental habits, the questions we ask, the thoughts we allow to stick in our mind, what stories we tell ourselves, and whether because you realize it or not, but those habits, those mindset habits, is what really shaping how your future gonna go, how prepared or unprepared. You are for an AI-first world. So today, let's ask ourselves, let's ask yourself are your mental habits designed to thrive in the AI-first future or are they quietly anchoring you in the past? So let's explore Today. By the end of this podcast, guys, you're going to learn a very useful framework of how to start changing your mindset, your AI mindset habits and why it matters, and what is the right way to approach AI as a tool so it doesn't make you dumber, as it can, as you'll also find out, if you didn't learn yet about this famous MIT study, that everyone's talking about how AI is making us all dumber, right. So today we're going to talk about how to use AI to not make you dumber, but make you a more powerful, empowered I would say human in the AI first world. So AI is here to stay, guys.

Speaker 1 2:54

I just finished a course with Ellie K Miller, a top voice on LinkedIn, top voice in AI. She worked for Microsoft and many other companies, advised them on AI, helped them to develop different AI tools and use cases for AI. So amazing course and very short, free on LinkedIn. And Alice started, not with technology and talking about all how AI works. No, she started with James Clear the habit guy and how, before you dive into any learnings about AI, you actually need to change your mindset to AI first mindset. And Ellie started talking about what James Clear talks about the habit guy, about mindset habits and how you need to change the way you approach solving problems in AI-first world. And then she gives examples for you personally, for your team, for your company how you can start building those AI-first habits.

Using AI as a Collaborator

Speaker 1 4:03

But today I want to talk about a couple of things. The first thing is that shift towards thinking about AI is not something that's going to replace your brain, but something that's going to empower your brain's capacities. Our brain is still a lot better than AI and if you worked with any AI tools in more or less depth, you probably saw that it's a little bit shallow, like it just gives you this information, but if you ask it to come up with some specific piece of writing or report, et cetera, that reflects your unique insight or create something that hasn't been done before, it's just not there yet. Funny case I've been testing some executive assistants to help me with some work and I asked the person to come up with some content for my podcast, my videos for Instagram, and then write the captions, the post for LinkedIn and Instagram, and the person basically used AI to do all of the writing. And when I read it, I'm like, did you even read what AI came up with? Do you even understand what it all says? Because when I read it, I'm like this is so generic and it's like, you know, like politicians say a bunch of words that mean nothing, and when you dig for depth, there is nothing. It's like they said a bunch of words that mean nothing. So that's the kind of post that came out of this interaction. I'm like, yeah, this is not working exactly. You can't provide depth that I need, so, you know, have to do it myself for the time being. But, that being said, so AI is not there. It is quite an amazing collaborator. When you don't shift responsibility of actual thinking to AI, shift responsibility of actual thinking to AI. So the first shift that you need to make and that Ali, in that course, top voice in AI, suggested you need to start looking at AI as your collaborator, not your brain replacer, and to make it more concrete and easy to work with.

Speaker 1 6:20

I want to share with you examples of using AI as a collaborator, specific examples from my daily life, work Every day. I write my blog. If you are not AI first mindset, very short, gonna take you five minutes or less to read, but interesting insights and research, tools and systems for shaping your mindset, your health, your how to build habits or how to break habits, how to create systems for meaningful work and deliver more fulfillment or get more fulfillment with wasting less hours. So check it out Daily Thought for Change. I write that blog every day, and how I use AI there is I write the blog first, so I come up with the idea. It comes from me living my life, the stories, the learnings. I read a ton of books and articles and talk to a lot of people, so I come up with ideas. I write the blog, the first draft, and then I go to AI and what I ask it to do. Okay, this is my blog.

Speaker 1 7:42

I'd like you to correct all the spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, you know the obvious stuff that I don't want to be checking for and use my mental power like it doesn't add any value to my work or my brain or my self-improvement. And then I also ask well, now act as an editor, using best practices for writing and creating something that engages people, that draws people in, that promotes deeper thinking. Write this version for me and explain why you did certain edits, so why you changed maybe the sentences or why you added this and that, so why you changed maybe the sentences or why you added this and that, but don't change my style or don't invent anything. Don't add anything that is there unless you believe it's gonna enhance my writing. And then explain why you do what you did. And so it does. It writes the second version and it explains I did these corrections I changed. For example, there was a question at the beginning of today's blog about do you have the right habits for the AI first world, and I actually had a different question in my original draft, but then I thought you know, that's actually better, and ChatGPT explained it to me that it is better because it asks the reader to consider their situation, it makes them self-reflect on their own thinking, and it's a lot better than just a question which is not relevant or not personalized. And so that's how I used AI as a collaborator. And then I obviously used the edits for grammar mistakes or stylistics mistakes where I thought they were appropriate. So that's one way I am using AI as a collaborator.

Speaker 1 9:39

The second one when, for example, I write proposals to my clients, I analyze the situation. I analyze my recent thinking, interactions, learnings about the specific case or the industry or the company and the problems it's going through. So I put it all in my first draft Like this is what I want to talk in the proposal, this is the outcome I want to create. These are the data points I want to use in my proposal to make my point clear, to prove my point. And then I go to chat GPT and I ask it okay, this is what I want to create for this type of client. The kind of proposal and the outcome I'm looking to create is this Can you please correct the mistakes, shape it up into final form of the proposal for this specific situation? Please also add these data points and describe the case in a more concise manner and also analyze it, like what are the blind spots, what are the things I'm not thinking about but you believe are really great to add to my proposal to make it look more professional or to make my point more clearly? And then ChaiGPT writes it for me and I check it and I edit it usually and off we go to send the proposal. So that's how I also am using ChatGPT as a collaborator, and it saves so much time just for shaping up your proposal into a form that the other human being will read, with the practices that are common in the industry. So it's not something I invent. People would often ask these days in different groups that I'm a part of can you give me a sample or a template for writing X? I'm like, why don't you just ask AI? It can give you a lot of templates Templates that's what AI is really good for, but anyhow. So that's another way I use AI as a collaborator.

Speaker 1 11:51

Then, with this podcast, for example, I learn again. I have stories. I use my experience, I come up with ideas. I decide what I'm going to be talking about on this podcast. I sit down, I draft it out point by point these are the things I want to cover on this podcast and then I feed that into ChatGPT and I asked it to come up with things like what are some titles that you suggest for this podcast that can draw listeners in and make people click to listen to the value we are here to deliver? I ask ChatGPT to suggest the stories or data points or something to again make a point that I'm trying to make Also. I ask for suggestions on the flow of the podcast, like what's first, what's second, what's last, and then I do the podcast and ChatGPT does well, actually, my podcast host has their own AI that when I upload the audio, it comes up with suggestions for the titles and show notes, and sometimes I also run it through ChatGPT to improve it and then I edit it myself.

Speaker 1 13:04

So that's another way how I use AI as my collaborator and notice, not someone who's going to come up with all the ideas and all the thinking, because, to be honest, like, I tried it a few times and it's like generic, it's what you'll find in every article on Forbes or some other magazine. Like it's so generic and so not me, not lived through my stories and my life, which adds this unique flavor that you probably love and come here for. So don't use AI as collaborator, don't use it as the replacement for your brain, because it's not your brain. The next one. I use it also when I work with my executive coaching clients, when I know my clients and when we have our weekly sessions. I usually then come up with the course of action Like these are the skills I believe this client needs to get to the next level. Based on my experience and my learnings and, again, all the courses and certifications I took and all the years that I did coaching, so I believe this will work.

Speaker 1 14:11

And again, chat GPT has no way of having all the background. All the conversations that we had with my client and also chat GPT or other are not human. They can't really understand why this human might do these things without having a lived experience. So, anyhow, I come up with different suggestions and I ask chat GPT, I put it in chat GPT, I give a little bit of background Okay, this is the client, we are working on this and I'm thinking of giving them these exercises, these practices Now based on this school of thinking, maybe motivational interviewing, maybe Socratic questioning, maybe cognitive behavioral coaching, like whatever that is I believe will work in this case.

Speaker 1 15:00

And then I ask chat GPT okay, what are your suggestions? And then I ask chat GPT okay, what are your suggestions? What kind of exercises, what kind of questions, what kind of reflection prompts would you give to my client here to work through, for example, this thinking or this challenge that they are having? Can you bring me examples from maybe workplace or from business case and then I read all the suggestions. I'm like, yeah, this makes sense. This doesn't. I don't like this, but I think this is really amazing for this client and I actually paste it in my Word document and then I add it and I put it back into ChatGPT and I ask it to come up with the final draft, add some structure to it.

The MIT Study on AI and Brain Activity

Speaker 1 15:44

Sometimes I ask to create a visual poster and my clients if you are my client you probably know that when I create these fancy pictures for you that you know now they are AI generated solutions, the initial answers all of that comes from my experience with a lot of clients over the years and also from the background that I have with a client a lot of my clients. We worked for two, three years and I know this client so much better than and I know this client so much better than, again, any AI can ever understand. Like all these hints, the way they approach a life, their facial expressions, their body language, like there is so much gets into my brain to process that. Again, chatgpt is just not there with that kind of depth and so, again, I use ChatGPT. I love ChatGPT because I've been just working with it for so long I tried others didn't really hit the point, and now that ChatGPT has this memory for the subscribers, it's becoming better and better at understanding what I actually am trying to create there and also reading my style and helping me to improve as a coach, as a business owner, as a writer and that's another use case AI as a collaborator, not a replacement for my brain. And then brings me to the story I was talking to my dad and he was well, you know, I and my dad is Russian, and so there was a study in MIT that they did, that they gave people a task of research and then writing, and so one group was first doing it on their own.

Speaker 1 17:40

The other group was using AI right from the start and the yeah. The second one was using Google, not AI, just search. And so what they found is at MIT is that people who used ChatGPT specifically it was with ChatGPT the brain areas that were activated were the least like they basically used their brain, the least kind of like, you know, cheating at school. Some people read the books and write the compositions and some people just take some I don't know some reference book and just copy everything and they do no thinking. So that's kind of the same. And guess what? People who write the composition with their own brain. It's like training your bicep their brain gets developed, gets more robust, their thinking, reasoning gets clearer, their ability to write and do research gets better.

Speaker 1 18:42

And what they did at MIT? They actually saw how different brain areas are activated and engaged or how they're not activated and engaged in a case of just using chat GPT to come up with the whole composition. And so the researchers concluded that when you do that all the time and just get the answers, without understanding, thinking and reasoning, it might happen that your brain, due to lack of usage, will not develop all that much. And, yes, we might end up having a lot of dumb people dumber, meaning dumber than their potential. And so my dad was telling me the story oh, you know, artificial intelligence seems to be making people dumber Obviously a good catchy title for some video or maybe some TV program. And I told my dad well, it depends on how you use it. What are your AI first habits? I think AI first is confusing. No, you don't just ask AI for all the answers first. Ideally, you again learn, you improve, you live your life, you have experience, you develop yourself and then you shape your thinking and ideas and then you ask for input, you ask for improvement.

Speaker 1 20:07

It's kind of like having your own editor right, being lucky to have this free well, not exactly free, but very cheap collaborator editor who can tell you you know, your thinking and writing is good here, but can use some improvements right there. And that's how I look at it. I'm like, yeah, you know, I agree with that. And then sometimes I'm like, oh, you know, I don't agree with that. I actually intentionally put this specific word there, so do not correct it. And also, ai, not that great with creating a lyrical or musical language, like sometimes you know it rolls from your tongue and when AI does the correction, it's like it doesn't roll anymore. And that also, I believe, is something that AI might not be as good yet. Who knows what's going to happen in the future.

Speaker 1 20:59

But the point is, guys, ai-first mindset and habits doesn't mean that now you use AI to think for you first. It means that when you do your task, when you write your proposal, when you come up with a piece of content, when you decide to solve a problem, think first and then collaborate with the AI like you would with a team member or an editor by your side or an additional researcher by your side. What do you think of that? And what do you think of this thought or that thought or how do you think I should make this point clearly and then you actually read and understand and decide, oh, that makes sense, or you know, this doesn't make sense. I'd like you to improve this. And bad things happen when we just mindlessly copy and paste, just like you would at school when you just copy and paste your composition. You didn't do the work, so you didn't develop your mental muscle.

4-Step Framework for Effective AI Collaboration

Speaker 1 21:59

So the takeaway of today's podcast but before we get into the takeaway and a framework for how to use AI better as your collaborator, based now on best practices from voices like Ali K Miller, top voice on LinkedIn in AI, and other people like how to use AI better to develop your brain and to help you do your work even better. Stay tuned. But before we dive into that for a few minutes, don't forget please, guys, to share this podcast episode with people who want to succeed in AI first world, in AI first future, who want to get smarter because of AI, not dumber. So please share this podcast episode with them, have a discussion, brainstorm, how you can use AI as a family, as friends, as team, as company. How you can use AI to again enhance your brain, just like you would enhance your muscles with a personal trainer. If you can use AI to again enhance your brain, just like you would enhance your muscles with a personal trainer. If you're an elite athlete with an Olympic coach, how can you use AI to make your brain better, not to dumb it down to the level of mediocrity and general thinking? So now, and don't forget to rate any of you guys that matters and helps us to reach more, smarter years. So we all develop and grow. So be a part of the movement, spread the news, help us grow, not become dumber. So, ai first, mindset and habits. How can you use AI as your collaborator to give you better outcomes and develop your brain?

Speaker 1 23:39

Well, first, again, do the work, do the learning, do your thinking, do your ideation. Don't just go to AI for creating ideas. Just have your ideas of your own. Spend some time there. So that is number one and it might be controversial there. People don't like to start with the blank page. Do the work, start with the freaking blank page. Figure out what's your thinking before you ask everyone's opinion, including AI. So come up with your first draft and then go to AI and ask it to improve it, literally ask it to make it better. How can AI make my writing better, my proposal better, my podcast better, my whatever that is? How can I make it better? I'd obviously also ask it to correct mistakes, et cetera. I think here I want to add a very again these days popular and actionable and effective framework of how to get the best answer and corrections from your AI, whether that's your GPT or something else.

Speaker 1 24:41

First, state a goal. What is it you're trying to create? Why do you need this proposal? What's the ideal outcome? Who's that person you're sending it to and what do you want to do with that person? Do you want to do business with them? Work with them. What is the challenge for them? Right, so, the business with them, work with them. What is the challenge for them? Right so the goal. What is it all for? What's the goal of the goal? Why are we doing this? So, give this chat GPT as well.

Speaker 1 25:05

Then, who you are hopefully you know your eye knows that by now. And then, who are you doing it for? Like, what's the client background, what's the company you're trying to work with, what's your audience, who is this for and who is doing this? And also, who do you want ChatDPG to be? When I write, I want it to be my editor. When I do podcasts, I want it to be my podcast co-host. When I do my executive coaching client's assignments, I want it to be my co-coach and having the second opinion right who it is.

Speaker 1 25:43

You want your AI to be act like Contacts contacts, again, who you are, what you're trying to achieve here. In what situation? What's the outcome? What's the client situation? What's the data you wanted to take, the lessons, the articles, the videos you wanted to watch, the audio, what's the context it's like, again, outside of context of your life or that specific situation I can give you like a lot of generic stuff which will make no sense. So contacts and then the output, the format.

Speaker 1 26:22

What do you want ChatGPT, for example, to come up with? Is it a structured proposal? Is it an Excel spreadsheet? Is that a script for your podcast, how you would say things? Is it a script for a video, how you would like, or is it an image? Would you like to represent the contents of your blog as an image.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

Speaker 1 26:50

What is it? The output? To reiterate, what's the goal? What are we trying to achieve here? Who's who you are, who your client is and who you want ChatGPT to be? Contacts what is the background, what's the situation? Like all the pieces of contacts you can give, the more the better. If anything we learned the more contacts you give to your AI, the better it gets. I think the more again. The more documents you upload that you feel are relevant, the better it gets. I think the more again. The more documents you upload that you feel are relevant, the better ChatGPT especially if you pay for it it's like can absorb the whole book. So give it. And the last one is output. What do you want ChatGPT to give to you? Like, I don't know. Questions for your clients reflection exercise, journaling exercise. You want to write a blog? You want to do a podcast? What is it? What's the output? Right? So four things Goal who, context, output there is no fancy sort of full letter word for it, at least for me. But those are the things. When you give it to your artificial intelligence, you get some really good answer. That's gonna blow your mind and probably other people's mind as well your listeners, your audience, your clients. So go who context output. Four things go who context output. And that's it for today. Guys, hope you got some better thinking ideas and food for feeding your AI-first mindset. And again, ai-first is a little bit confusing. Don't outsource your initial thinking and ideation to AI it's actually the best part of you to AI it's actually the best part of you. So AI first means, but then how can you use AI to improve, to make this sparkle? And that's the first insight. Check out the course by LAK Miller. I highly recommend it. Short course, but will give you some really good frameworks for using AI as your empowered collaborator. So you empower your brain as well. Don't not dumb it down. And then the last but not least, this framework for collaborating with artificial intelligence. Goal who context output. If you want to get great results, then provide as much of that as possible, and that's where the result that you get will stop being generic, but instead going to become something very useful and unique and insightful. Not like in the case with my executive assistant who probably didn't understand any of that the goal, the who, the context, the output and then gave it to chat, gpt or whatever, and got this generic response which I couldn't like comprehend. I'm like you said a bunch of words, but they've been literally nothing like the best politician. So, anyhow, goal who contacts output, and don't outsource your thinking to AI. Improve it with AI. Thank you guys for listening, thank you for tuning in for your attention and till next time, use AI to improve, not to replace your brain, and keep growing.