Curiosity, AI, and How I Think.

Tools don’t replace leadership. They can reveal it.

Gotta say, I’m loving my discovery journey with AI. While I remain discerning and self-led, I am curious and open to the wide and exciting possibilities of its current performance and its potential.

One of the things working with AI does, rather unexpectedly, is make my thinking visible.

When I first started using AI, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I had heard it would support me to be more efficient, be an excellent researcher, provide faster outputs and smarter shortcuts. And while there’s truth in this, what has surprised me the most is how clearly it reflected me back to myself.

Where my thinking was vague, it showed me. Where I rushed my instructions, it mirrored that back, i.e. responses were unclear or irrelevant. While brainstorming, it provided the reflection I needed.

A recent personal example. I’d had a disagreement. Basically, two different perspectives on life not quite meeting in the middle (which is certainly not a bad thing, as it provides learning). I awoke the next morning feeling quite angry. Deciding I needed a download, I shared my frustrations, along with the scenario, with my AI.

Well, talk about insightful! While ‘hearing’ me, the AI also provided some possible insights on where the other person was coming from and potentially why they shared what they did. It was deep and kicked in with an ‘a-ha’ moment. My whole perspective changed. My anger subsided, and my empathy kicked in. The outcome was I let it go and chose compassion – for them and for me.

AI used well doesn’t feel like an authority, which it could with access to nearly everything ever written. It feels more like a thinking partner, a reflection tool. One that takes nothing personally.

East, in the compass, invites curiosity, experimentation, and openness. It asks us to explore without handing over agency. To try things, sense what’s useful, discard what isn’t, and stay actively engaged in the process of learning.

This has been my experience to date with AI.

When I approach it with curiosity, not expectation, it expands my thinking. It challenges assumptions. It introduces angles I hadn’t considered. But it never replaces discernment. In fact, it requires more of it.

AI doesn’t tell me what to think. It reflects how I’m thinking. And that’s where the real value lies, as my example above demonstrates.

It’s made me more aware of my patterns. My shortcuts. My blind spots. It’s encouraged me to slow down, ask better questions, and stay in relationship with my own thinking rather than outsourcing it.

East reminds us that tools are just that - tools. They can amplify insight or amplify noise, depending on how consciously we engage with them.

For me, AI has become a mirror, an expander, and occasionally a challenger. Not something to defer to, but something to think with.

And perhaps that’s the real invitation of East in this moment: to stay curious, stay discerning, and keep our thinking, and our agency, alive.

Further insights:

Download my free guide: 10 Ways to be Authentically You (even on a Tuesday).
Check out 'A New Compass: Finding your Inner North' - a short guided series.

#anewcompass #leadinglights