Don’t Use AI. Work With It.

Jeremy Utley, adjunct professor at Stanford, has a simple but powerful message: “Don’t use AI. Work with it.”

It’s an important distinction. Most professionals today still treat ChatGPT and other AI tools like vending machines. Insert a prompt, get an answer, move on. But that’s a mistake.

Why demanding answers falls short

When you only ask AI for quick answers, you fall into what psychologists call “satisficing”—settling for the first thing that seems good enough. Jeremy Utley warns that this is exactly where most people go wrong. AI generates statistical averages. That means your first response is rarely the best response.

If you stop at “good enough,” you’ll miss the deeper, more creative solutions AI can help uncover.

What collaboration looks like

Collaboration means treating AI like a sparring partner. You don’t just accept its output—you challenge it. You ask it to generate alternatives, critique its own ideas, push back on assumptions, and even ask you better questions.

The shift is subtle but profound: you move from being a consumer of outputs to being a co-creator of solutions.

The payoff in practice

In business and professional settings, this collaborative mindset matters more than ever. Consider how AI can:

• Generate multiple approaches to a client problem, not just one.

• Offer competing frameworks for a strategy document, helping you weigh options.

• Critique a draft presentation for clarity, tone, and persuasiveness.

Each interaction becomes a loop of learning, iteration, and improvement. That’s where innovation happens.

Moving forward

Utley’s advice reframes AI from tool to teammate. And in the workplace, where productivity, creativity, and adaptability are in high demand, that distinction could make or break careers.

So the next time you open ChatGPT, don’t think, “What answer can I extract?” Instead, think: “How can I collaborate with this system to uncover something better than either of us could create alone?”

That’s the future of work. Not AI replacing humans, not humans ignoring AI—but humans and AI working together.