If you think AI is a shortcut, You’re missing the point

Lately, I’ve found myself reflecting on what’s been shaping my thinking.

We often measure our lives in data now—what we listened to, what we clicked on, what we used, what quietly absorbed our time. Out of curiosity, I looked back at mine.

My Spotify history showed AI podcasts dominating my listening habits. My ChatGPT usage summary placed me in the top 5% of early adopters and top 5% for overall use. On paper, that might sound like over-reliance. Obsession, even.

Something has changed—and it’s less about productivity, and more about perspective.

Over the last few years, I’ve probably used AI more than most people I know, and I’m aware that saying that can make some people wary, sceptical or even judgemental.

There’s an assumption that high use automatically means outsourcing thinking. That if you’re talking to ChatGPT or other generative models a lot, you must be letting a machine do the work, taking shortcuts, or avoiding doing the hard thinking yourself.

That hasn’t been my experience at all.

If anything, it’s been the opposite.

I didn’t use AI to think for me. I used it to think with me, and that distinction changes everything.

When I first started using tools like ChatGPT, it wasn’t about speed or efficiency. It wasn’t about doing more in less time. It was about having space. Space to put half-formed thoughts, to explore ideas before they were ready, and to ask questions I might not always say out loud.

Over time, something shifted in how I worked.

I stopped trying to carry everything in my head. I started writing things out properly. I found myself questioning decisions before making them rather than justifying them afterwards, and that alone improved the quality of my thinking.

Most conversations about AI focus on shortcuts. Writing content faster. Summarising documents. Automating tasks.

I’ve never found that particularly interesting.

What I have found interesting is using AI as a mirror.

A way to reflect my own thinking back to myself and look at it more closely. To ask questions like, what am I assuming here, what might I be missing, what’s the risk if I’m wrong, and is this genuinely the best way to do this, or just the most familiar one. That isn’t cheating.

That’s reflective practice.

And it’s something we don’t often give ourselves time for, especially in professional roles where certainty and confidence are expected.

I’ve noticed that many surveyors dismiss AI very quickly by testing it in the wrong way. They’ll say it can’t write a report like they can, that it doesn’t understand nuance, or that it could never replace professional judgement.

They’re right and that’s exactly the point. AI isn’t there to replace expertise. It’s there to challenge how we use it.

The biggest change for me hasn’t been output. It’s been perspective.

Using AI regularly has made me slower to react, more deliberate in my decisions, and more honest with myself about what I do and don’t know. I feel clearer and more grounded in my thinking than I did before.

If AI were making me passive, I’d feel smaller over time.

I don’t and I feel more capable, which is how I know this isn’t dependency. It’s growth.

What’s also been interesting is watching others go through a similar shift. People who were sceptical or dismissive often change their view once they start using AI in small, practical ways and realise it isn’t about replacing them, it’s about supporting them.

I think we do ourselves a disservice when we reduce the AI conversation to tools, shortcuts, or fear. Used well, AI can help good professionals become more thoughtful, more self-aware, and more adaptable, not because it knows more than you, but because it helps you see your own thinking more clearly. It helps you self improve.

Lets face it – we can all do better, we are always learning and adapting. AI can really help you explore your own ways of thinking, assumptions, bias in a comfortable space without judgement. That is priceless. But it does start with being honest with yourself and open minded.

I think we don’t talk about this enough, because most people do not want to admit even to themselves that they can do better.