How To Think With AI: A Simple Guide to Boost Your Brain Power, Creativity, and Performance

So far, the results are uneven.

Some people have already discovered how to weave these tools into their daily lives, using them to test ideas, expand their thinking, and tackle complex challenges that once seemed insurmountable. They’ll tell you AI is a wildly powerful technology that helps them create and perform at a level that was impossible just a year ago. They’ll say it’s an imaginative, creative thought partner—that it’s made them a better manager, thinker, entrepreneur, learner, parent, or partner. That they can’t imagine life without it.

Far more people struggle to find meaningful ways to wield AI.

Perhaps they have dabbled a bit, getting an interesting or amusing result, or just as likely something totally underwhelming. Some may have found it useful for a one-off task—such as drafting a difficult letter or planning a party menu—but AI simply didn’t “stick.” Even with AI just a browser tab away, they don’t reach for it. Its real-world, everyday value remains elusive.

Countless brilliant minds—executives, educators, entrepreneurs, and leaders across every sector—are missing the opportunity to amplify their impact with AI.

I wrote this book to close this gap.

I was concerned by the sheer number of people I encounter who are still on the sidelines as the world starts to shift under their feet. As AI-enhanced people drive a new baseline, suddenly everyone else will be operating at a fraction of their potential. It’s not because they are less capable but because the ceiling of what’s possible has risen.

This is why I spent the last year studying and codifying the behavior of early adopters who extract value from AI daily across their personal and professional lives. I captured the secrets of how they learned to Think with AI to achieve what was impossible on their own.

I’ve transformed these insights into a structured learning journey that will help you succeed on the new AI-powered playing field we all face today.

Embracing a Human-Centered Approach
This book, and the learning journey I will share, focus on a specific facet of AI: harnessing the technology to boost our own cognitive performance. While AI is being deployed across all kinds of use cases where it makes decisions and acts on them autonomously without human intervention, our focus here is different. We’re exploring how we—as people—can increase our cognitive capabilities and capacity to create by collaborating with AI.

Even if your organization ultimately aims for more comprehensive automation, the approach outlined here serves as an excellent starting point to help your teams familiarize themselves with AI’s strengths, limitations, and capabilities. The rapid advancement of “AI agents” (these are systems designed to make and execute decisions independently) marks an exciting new frontier in automation. However, given our still-maturing understanding of how best to use the technology, many AI use cases still rely on what’s called “human-in-the-loop.” This means that AI informs decision-making, but people remain in charge of interpreting results and driving actions, rather than trusting the system to act on its own.

Thinking with AI inherently emphasizes human-in-the-loop: we are using AI as a cognitive enhancer—to help us think smarter and better—rather than as a replacement. This approach offers an ideal way to jump in now, get firsthand experience with the technology, and build AI muscle across an organization. In fact, as AI reshapes the competitive landscape, forward-thinking organizations are discovering that success lies not just in implementing AI systems, but in helping their teams to Think with AI. Ensuring everyone on your team has direct experience with AI’s capabilities is crucial for any organization hoping to fully leverage this technology—and this is why I consistently advise pairing AI automation initiatives with efforts to help people throughout your organization learn to Think with AI.

A Guide to Getting AI to Serve You
Discovering how to get AI to serve you—starting with that breakthrough “aha” moment when you first see AI deliver something truly useful—is a personal journey that looks different for everyone. A CEO discovered how to use AI as a sounding board for strategy. A 94-year-old found she could use AI to recall words she was struggling to remember. A marketing leader learned how to use AI to accelerate campaign development. A non-profit director discovered how to apply for grants in a fraction of the time it took before. And a mom of four found she could use AI to help her think through strategies for supporting her kids with the challenges they faced both in the classroom and in the schoolyard. With each discovery, I would hear the same realization: “I didn’t know it could do that!”

This book serves as a guide for this personal journey. I’ll help you navigate through the noise, center you on what’s happening in this moment, and provide a roadmap to help you match your unique needs and the new capabilities that AI offers you to discover how AI can be useful in your life. In this journey, we will also cover:

How to shift your mindset to get more out of AI. AI works differently from any other software we’ve experienced. To get value from these new tools, we need to first understand a new way of interacting with software.

Advice to move past procrastination. Procrastination often gets in the way of diving into AI. I not only share why you should feel an urgency to learn more about these new tools but also offer practical strategies to jump into a successful learning journey.

Curated recommendations to help you take your learning further. I’ve curated a library of online resources to help you plug into a community of shared learning.

By the time you finish these pages, AI won’t be some distant, intimidating technology. You’ll have a powerful ally at your side—always on, ready to assist when you feel stuck or limited by your knowledge or capabilities or to propel you to new levels of creativity and performance.

Social scientist and digital transformation strategist Alison McCauley immersed herself in studying hundreds of early adopters to decode their secrets of success. She transforms these powerful insights into a clear, proven framework that anyone can use to turn AI into their cognitive advantage.

In How to Think with AI, you’ll:

• Discover how AI can boost your creativity and brain power—while preserving what makes you uniquely human.
• See why AI will reshape the landscape of success—and why falling behind isn’t an option.
• Get a practical, step-by-step guide to make AI work for you.

Every day you wait is a missed opportunity to boost your brain power. Begin your transformation with How to Think with AI.