How to stop using AI to reinforce the status quo, and start using it to break it.
Most leaders are using AI to move faster.
Summarize the meeting. Rewrite the email. Organize the plan.
And it works, AI excels at efficiency.
But here’s the problem:
AI is built to be rational.
It’s trained to predict the most likely next word, next move, next strategy.
It gives you the average of everything that’s already been done.
Which is fine, until you’re trying to do something that’s never been done.
AI completes your thoughts.
Breakthroughs come from breaking your thoughts.
If you only use AI to reinforce your existing worldview, you’re not thinking faster.
You’re just repeating yourself, at scale.
So how do you use AI to challenge your thinking instead?
Here are three prompts to break the loop:
“What’s a completely irrational way to solve this problem?” - This forces the model out of optimization mode and into imagination.
“Challenge this strategy from the point of view of someone who thinks it will fail.” - This helps expose blind spots and break internal consensus.
“Make this idea 10x bolder, even if it doesn’t make sense yet.” - This pushes for scale, ambition, and creative risk.
These prompts don’t give you answers.
They give you friction. And that’s where the good stuff lives.
If your AI never surprises you, it’s not a creative partner.
It’s just a slightly faster assistant.
Try giving your AI permission to be irrational.
That might be the most rational move you can make.