When generative AI first blew up, the pitch was everywhere: go from a blank page to a first draft in minutes. No more staring at the cursor for hours. No more struggling to start. Sounds like a dream, right?
But here’s what nobody mentioned: the first draft is where your thinking actually happens. It’s messy, it’s half-baked, and it’s yours. If you skip that part, whose ideas are you even working with?
I heard a story recently that won’t leave my head. A guy gave a presentation at a conference and got a standing ovation. Afterward, he admitted that he couldn’t remember much of it; he hadn’t written it. He didn’t know his own argument. Imagine being applauded for something you can’t even remember thinking.
I build digital experiences for a living, and use AI tools regularly, so I’m not here to say you should avoid them. But I do think it’s very important to make sure you’re preserving the thinking that makes you, you. I’ve seen people lean on tools like ChatGPT so heavily that when you ask a follow-up question, they freeze or speak differently from their writing, which is usually laced with telltale signs of AI. Why? Because they never took the time to right-size the outcomes to their own thinking, context, and lived experiences.
Your thinking is part of who you are. It’s how you grow, how you get sharper, how you figure out what you actually believe. If you want AI to help you, you have to nurture what is “you.” Here are six ways to begin that process:
Start with your own thinking
Before you open ChatGPT, get something down first. A messy draft, a voice note, even a text to yourself full of typos. For instance, if I was writing a paper about fast fashion, I’d jot down what I think about fast fashion? Do I have conflicting views? How is it defined and what’s causing it? What do I already know vs what do I want to know so I can feel more informed to sharpen my point of view on it? To sharpen what I want my paper to convey. That raw starting point is yours. AI can help shape it later, but let the origin be you. This is how you find your voice as a thinker and a writer.
Use AI to own the curation, not to think for you
AI is great at surfacing authors, articles, and perspectives you wouldn’t have found on your own. Use it for that. But then take ownership of the curation: actually read what it gives you, source check it, fact check it. AI is designed to make things sound right enough, not to make sure they’re actually right. Notice what resonates. Sit with what you disagree with. Form your own opinion. It can summarise, but it can’t connect the dots the way you would.
Protect your analog time
AI can’t overhear the conversation after class that changes how you see something. It can’t pick up on the things you notice walking through your neighborhood. It can’t make the weird connection your brain makes when you’re bored and staring out the window. That wandering matters. That’s where your best thinking often comes from. Keep a notebook. Document your experiences. You don’t always have to share it with the world right away, but capture it for yourself.
Practice saying what you think
Get in the habit of structuring your opinions: what’s the 1 thing you actually want people to remember, why do you believe it, what are you noticing, how does it connect to something else you’ve experienced? And before you react to anything, pause. What shaped this opinion? What am I assuming? What might I be missing? This is the muscle AI can’t build for you.
Talk to actual humans
Not to be right, but to think out loud together. When you say an idea to another person, they take it somewhere you didn’t expect. They make a connection you wouldn’t have made. And there’s something irreplaceable about watching your idea land with someone and seeing what it sparks in them. That doesn’t happen in a chat window. You’re accumulating knowledge, but someone with experience can help you figure out how to actually use it.
Make AI push back on you
AI wants to agree with you by default. Don’t let it. Ask it to find the holes in your argument. Ask it to argue the other side. Try prompts like “What’s the strongest case against this?” or “Where is my reasoning lazy?” You can even tell it to never write things for you, only to think with you. That’s when it gets useful.
We can’t avoid AI entering our workflows, and we shouldn’t. But we can avoid losing the essence of who we are and our humanity in the process. We can choose to think critically, challenge our blind spots, and stand firm in what matters to us. We want more of the human you, not less.
Read more about Ariba Jahan, the Head of Connected Experience at Anomaly, where she builds digital experiences for Fortune 500 brands.