Tips for Using AI Tools for Cognitive Offloading

In a world where access to powerful AI is increasingly democratized, the differentiator won’t be who has AI, but who knows how to direct it. The ability to ask the right question, frame the contextual scenario, or steer the AI in a nuanced direction is a critical skill that’s strategic, creative, and ironically human. My engineering education taught me to optimize systems with known variables and predictable theorems. But working with AI requires a fundamentally different cognitive skill: optimizing for unknown possibilities. We're not just giving instructions anymore; we're co-creating with an intelligence that can unlock potential. What separates AI power users from everyone else is they've learned to think in questions they've never asked before. Most people use AI like a better search engine or a faster typist. They ask for what they already know they want. But the real leverage comes from using AI to challenge your assumptions, synthesize across domains you'd never connect, and surface insights that weren't on your original agenda. Consider the difference between these approaches: - "Write a marketing plan for our product" (optimization for known variables) - "I'm seeing unexpected churn in our enterprise segment. Act as a customer success strategist, behavioral economist, and product analyst. What are three non-obvious reasons this might be happening that our internal team would miss?" (optimization for unknown possibilities) The second approach doesn't just get you better output, it gets you output that can shift your entire strategic direction. AI needs inputs that are specific and not vague, provide context, guide output formats, and expand our thinking. This isn't just about prompt engineering, it’s about developing collaborative intelligence - the ability to use AI not as a tool, but as a thinking partner that expands your cognitive range. The companies and people who master this won't just have AI working for them. They'll have AI thinking with them in ways that make them fundamentally more capable than their competition. What are your pro-tips for effective AI prompts? #AppliedAI #CollaborativeIntelligence #FutureofWork

Truth: As a creator/content marketer, I am a fan of AI tools like ChatGPT. But I don't use them for content writing. Here are 5 unique ways I use AI (𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘭𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘥): 1️⃣ 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴: I'll give it a topic and ask for unconventional angles to spark new perspectives I have not considered yet. 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵 :  "For topic { insert topic }, brainstorm new angles or approaches. Prioritize ideas that are uncommon or rarely discussed". 2️⃣ 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰 𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: Generating content themes and subtopics myself gets time-consuming and frankly exhausting. AI mind maps will help me do it in half the time. 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵: "Create a mind map on the topic {insert topic}, listing out the central idea, main branches, and sub-branches." 3️⃣ 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Rather than getting lost in Google rabbit holes for 4 hours, I will use AI to quickly develop a baseline understanding of a new topic. To get the best overview of the topic, I will also ask it to use the Pareto principle - focus on the 20% content that will teach me 80% about the topic. 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵: "I am interested in gaining a deep understanding of {topic}. To maximize my learning efficiency, apply the Pareto principle. Identify the top 20% of subtopics, concepts, and skills within this area that will lead to 80% of proficiency." 4️⃣𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀: I have it review my content to describe my voice and style. I can take this personal style guide and experiment with what resonates. 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵: "Analyze the text below for style, voice, and tone. Highlight key attributes to create a style guide {Insert text}." 5️⃣𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 - I will use it to distill important information from long meeting transcripts - a true time saver! 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵: "Summarize the meeting transcript. Highlight the takeaways, decisions made and next steps." ❗ AI summaries of long form content often ends up looking oversimplified and misses important nuances. I would not recommend its use for summarizing research articles. Key to AI tools is to find ways it can enhance your existing skills. Don't waste its potential on simply creating boring robotic copy no one wants to read. Put it to work creatively to become a smarter version of yourself. #contentmarketing #contentstrategy #productivity #ai #sciencewriting

In the midst of constant AI advancements, the most powerful feature in AI tools might surprise you. It's the "Edit Prompt" button. Here's how to use it and why it matters: 👇 Initial prompts may not always fully capture our intent. The Edit Prompt button allows for real-time refinement, turning a good prompt into a great one. Enter your prompt, review the response, and then click the edit button to adjust your original request based on the output. Now that you've seen the initial response, you can pinpoint where your prompt was unclear. What might you have omitted in your instructions that would help make this more aligned with what you envisioned? Tweak your prompt for this missing clarity and precision. This habit, this small action, is transformative. It dramatically enhances the outcomes from your AI interactions. But more than that, it serves as a powerful learning tool. When you use the edit prompt button regularly, you become a better prompter, understanding how your prompts really influence the AI's responses. It helps you learn the art of asking the AI for what you really want, refining your approach through an immediate feedback loop. And there's a broader implication here, too—clean context and efficient memory use. By editing prompts instead of adding more to the conversation, you keep the AI focused, and you avoid confusing it with a back-and-forth chat-based revision process. This is crucial for efficiency, especially in tools like ChatGPT that remember the entirety of the conversation. It's important to make every interaction count, ensuring you're not just getting responses, but the right responses at every step. The quality of your entire conversation will significantly improve. ChatGPT, Bard, and Perplexity all have an edit prompt button, but not every tool offers this feature. If your AI tool lacks this button, mimic it. On your first prompt, look at the results, then copy your prompt and start a new chat with an edited version. Editing your prompts rather than chatting to change the output goes beyond a simple tip; it's an essential best practice for AI users. The Edit Prompt button is not just a feature; it's a fundamental tool for effective communication with AI. Make it your best friend. Trust me, it makes a significant difference to the quality of your outputs. If you're interested in a new video that demonstrates this functionality, please let me know. If there's enough interest, I'll certainly create one! Would you like your marketing team to master AI workflow best practices like this for optimal AI use every time? This is just one small example of the type of lessons I include in my AI Marketing Team Trainings!

Feeling overwhelmed by all the AI hype? Not sure where to start? Jeffrey Bussgang has some sage advice: treat AI like your own personal business therapist. Yep, you read that right. Spill your guts to the AI. Tell it about your: → Struggles → Pain points → Keep-you-up-at-night conundrums Give it all the details and see what insights it can uncover. The key is to start small and specific. Let's say you're knee-deep in customer discovery and drowning in interview notes. Toss those notes to your AI therapist and ask it to: → Synthesize the insights → Spot the patterns and trends → Recommend 3 must-have features to address the issues Boom, you've got a solid starting point to inform your product roadmap. But don't stop there. Keep the conversation going. → Bounce ideas off your AI co-pilot. → Ask for feedback. → Iterate and refine. The more you engage with AI, the more it starts to feel like a trusted thought partner. So don't be afraid to open up and get vulnerable with your AI therapist. Give it a front-row seat to your founder struggles and let it help you navigate the twists and turns. Who knows? You just might uncover your next big breakthrough. — What's one problem in your startup that you'd love to get an AI's perspective on? For more tips on making AI your startup's secret weapon, tune into my latest Minimum Viable Podcast episode with Jeffrey Bussgang, General Partner and Co-Founder at Flybridge!

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆? 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵? Give these tips a try, check out the attached anatomy of a prompt below. Be Specific: Precision in prompts leads to targeted and useful AI responses. It’s about asking the right questions to get the right answers. Set Constraints: Constraints guide the AI in generating focused and relevant outputs. Think of them as guardrails that keep the AI on track. Provide Context: Context is king. It helps AI understand the 'why' behind a prompt, leading to more meaningful and insightful responses. Seek Creativity: Don't shy away from asking for imaginative or out-of-the-box ideas. AI can surprise us with its creative capabilities. Use Clear Language: Clarity is critical. Clear prompts result in clear responses. Avoid ambiguities to ensure that AI understands your exact needs. Include Criteria for Success: Define what success looks like for your prompt. This helps in evaluating the AI's response and in iterative improvements. Ask for Reasoning: Encourage AI to not just provide answers, but also the rationale behind them. This deepens understanding and trust in AI outputs. Iterate and Refine: AI prompting is an iterative process. Refine your prompts based on responses to achieve the best outcomes. 𝗭𝗲𝗿𝗼, 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗲𝘄 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 In addition to the core strategies for crafting AI prompts, understanding the nuances of zero-shot, single-shot and few-shot prompting can improve your ChatGPT results. 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲-𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝘀: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Typically we don't provide any examples to our prompts this is called zero-shot prompting. Single-shot prompting involves providing the AI with one example. This is ideal for straightforward tasks or when you need a quick, creative solution without much context. The key here is specificity and clarity. Since you're only giving one shot or example it's typically good for showing the format of the output you are looking for. 𝗙𝗲𝘄-𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁𝘀: 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 Few-shot prompting means providing the AI with a small number of examples to guide its output.Perfect for tasks where you want the AI to follow a certain style or format, or when more complex understanding is required.Choose your examples wisely. They should be representative of the task at hand and demonstrate the variety you expect in responses. Mastering these skills can significantly enhance the results from ChatGPT and other chatbots that use LLMs. What tips do you have for crafting effective AI prompts?

Most don't realize the trade-offs they're making when using AI. Since ChatGPT really took flight about a year ago, I've developed an AI-first mindset–looking to integrate it into just about everything that I do. I've invested much energy over the past year, honing my voice. While AI can be extremely helpful in getting folks from 0-1, I've found the opposite depending on the task. A goal of mine when sharing any writing or content is that I want to ensure that my authenticity and creativity really shine. I started to notice that when solely using LLMs to get from 0-1, the originality of my ideas was capped. My ideas felt generic. So, I decided to run an experiment on my workflow. I shifted back to using pen and paper first. After, I read my writing out loud and record it into Otter.ai. Then, use an LLM (Claud, ChatGPT, etc) to synthesize. Since shifting my process, I've turned a corner with my creativity and relationship to AI in my workflow. There's no right way to integrate AI into your workflow. The key is getting clear and intentional about the tradeoffs you're making in the process. ~ ✍️ What's your take on this? ♻️ Reshare if this is helpful. #artificialintelligence #aiworkflow #intentionaltechnology

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be on everyone's lips these days. At reshift we are technology optimists and we're embracing AI to help us be better at our craft. I recommend these 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐀𝐈 to help you do better work: 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 - The easiest way to leverage AI is for researching a topic much in the way you are accustomed to researching with your favorite search engine. Instead of writing a few small keywords, 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞. The trick is learning how to enter your prompts in a way that efficiently gets you to your answer, it's actually amazing and entertaining how much more powerful and efficient your research can be. 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈 - Have you ever gotten stuck getting started or somewhere in the middle of writing something? 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 that you can ask the help you formulate your thoughts. This can be a huge time-saver by helping you either expand or condense your content. You can also amp up your own creativity by asking the AI to write with a specific emphasis or for a specific audience. 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 - There are many free AI tools you can use to automatically take meeting notes that do an excellent job recording, transcribing and summarizing your conversation. Getting consent from your meeting participants is important (very few people object). For me 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, knowing that my trusty AI note taker is catching every detail. These three examples are easy ways to get started using AI in your everyday work. The thing is, 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. As Karim Lakhani of Harvard said, "𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 — 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐀𝐈." Best to be one of those humans with AI! #AI #EverydayAI #Innovation Steven B., Manfred Gollent, Heather Stagl, Lisa G. Morris, Adam StJohn Lawrence, Arne van Oosterom

How to start using AI in 2024? (Without getting lost in the sea of knowledge) 𝟭/ 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 What parts of your business could benefit from increased efficiency or accuracy? Look for tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to human error. Some Examples: Data entry, report generation, and customer service inquiries. 𝟮/ 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝟭 𝗨𝘀𝗲-𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Don’t overthink this. Choose a piece of low-hanging fruit. The smaller the problem, the better would be the result. However, be careful! The objective is NOT to replace humans. The objective is to GRANT SUPERPOWERS to make the same humans more effective. Wrong way to think → Let me place an AI chatbot on my website. That’ll automate the FAQs. Right way to think → Let me arm my existing customer reps with AI tools that allow them to provide higher levels of service with much lower time costs. 𝟯/ 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗜 (𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧) Be as specific as you can. Think of ChatGPT as a super-smart but naive assistant — eager to please and learn, but needs precise direction. Detail the steps involved, the desired outcomes, and any nuances that are important for the AI to understand, just as you would a recent Master’s grad hire. Examples are gold here. The more real examples you give, the better your AI works. 𝟰/ 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗚𝗣𝗧 Remember, ChatGPT is a beginner. Don’t expect supreme performance right away. Provide specific feedback to improve its responses or processes. If AI misunderstands a customer's intent, correct it. This feedback loop is crucial for the AI to learn and improve. After 4-5 iterations, you’ll see how the responses become good enough for you to start trusting AI. (And that’s where most of my clients get the “Aha” moment!) 𝟱/ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗔𝗜-𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 Don’t work with AI in isolation. Once you're satisfied with the AI's performance, create an instructional video using Loom. Walk through the AI-augmented process, explaining how it works and how your team can best leverage it. This will help ensure smooth adoption and integration into daily operations :) Be patient. AI, like any other technology, has a learning curve. But if you commit to getting 1% better every day, proactively integrating AI into small use cases, and investing time into becoming an AI-powered team, you’ll unlock the MASSIVE upside that AI has to offer. (Sooner than you think!) So, Start using AI today.

Interesting article by Brandolon Barnett on using AI for innovation with some simple, practical examples. After you have developed your acceptable use policy and considered the ethics and responsible use, it is time to think about use-cases for generative AI (ChatGPT), but always with a co-bot approach and with human review as the last step. What I like about generative AI tools like chatGPT is that to use them well, you need to think about your work flow and processes, whether for personal productivity or that of your team. If you are using a writing tool, think about writing tasks related to your work that cause pain and just take a long time. We all have our own strengths and things to improve when do writing at work, so think about that ... do you need a thought partner to help you develop an outline or the first crappy sentence or do need an assistant who do some light editing for brevity. Or do, do need a writing coach to critique a first draft? Another approach is think about ChatGPT or other generative AI in the one of the following persona roles: a) administrative assistant; b) thought partner; c) coach. In the first persona, think about repetitive time consuming tasks (like formatting and lightly editing a meeting transcript, or organizing information into a different way). The second persona, think of it as a work buddy to get a second opinion to brainstorm ideas, answer questions about what you might not already know, give you some step-by-steps, or generate an outline. The third persona might be used to give you feedback on your first draft. You, as the human, should always have the last word. The secret is in the way you construct your prompts - you need to provide role, context, format, and the task - and be specific. Also, don't expect magic or perfection in the first response. I've found the real power of using this, especially for the persona of thought partner, is the iteration and back and forth. #generativeAI #nonprofits #innovation https://lnkd.in/gQ_DJFtk