An Interesting Idea From Co-Intelligence

I’m currently reading Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick, and one idea has really stuck with me: “Always invite AI to the table.”

Mollick isn’t suggesting that AI should do everything for us or that we should automatically trust or use what it produces. Instead, he presents the idea as a way to learn what AI can and can’t do.

The basic concept is pretty simple: when working on a task, consider whether AI might be able to help in some way. Maybe it can help brainstorm ideas, provide a different perspective, organize your thoughts, summarize information, or help you get past the dreaded blank page.

Sometimes it may be incredibly helpful. Other times, you may decide that it didn’t add much value. And, of course, there are situations where using AI may not be appropriate at all.

What I find interesting about Mollick’s idea is that the experimentation itself is part of the learning.

The more opportunities we have to safely and appropriately experiment with AI, the more we can begin to understand where it might make our work easier or better and, just as importantly, where our own expertise, judgment, and experience are still essential.

For those of us learning how AI might fit into our work, “inviting AI to the table” seems like an interesting way to build that understanding one task at a time.

So, here’s a question for you:

What’s one part of your job where you could invite AI to the table?