For years, professionals were paid largely for what they knew. Knowledge was power and it was important. Sometimes people shared it and sometimes they hoarded it. To accumulate that knowledge took time and it was respected. Critical thinking is not a new skill. It has always mattered. But in the age of AI, it has become one of the defining behaviours that separates those who will thrive in this new world and those who will be left behind.
Today, AI can retrieve information, summarise reports, draft emails and analyse data in seconds.
In a world where we have (nearly) all the information in the world what we do with that information is increasingly valuable.
Here are seven critical thinking behaviours that at WorkJuggle we believe every professional needs to have in the age of AI.
1. Question Your First Answer
One of the biggest risks of AI is that it often sounds confident. Confident doesn’t mean correct.
Ask yourself:
- What assumptions is this making?
- What evidence supports it?
- What might be missing?
2. Challenge Assumptions
When you have been given this information ask yourself:
- What are we assuming to be true?
- What if the opposite were true?
Did you know that amongst the training data that AI has been trained on our reams of romance books and the Enron email data set. That should give you pause for thought.
3. Seperate Evidence from Opinion
AI is exceptionally good at producing plausible language.
That makes it easy to confuse confidence with evidence.
Before acting, ask:
- What do we actually know?
- What is simply an interpretation?
- Where did this information come from?
Remember the lawyer in the US court case who was confidently reciting case law from a case that never happened? Don’t be that person! AI hallucinations are real.
4. Seek Different Perspectives
Groupthink was all too common in the real world before AI. Remember the rush to buy eir shares (we do, we bought them!), not to mention the property boom and subsequent crash in Ireland. These were real events which looking back were clearly a result of Groupthink.
AI can reinforce our existing beliefs by producing answers that reflect our prompts and assumptions. It is also a huge repository of all known information on that topic to date. And that is important. It only knows what is already known. This could be something new, something different? If you rely to heavily on what ChatGPT is telling you, you could miss something really valuable.
5. Be Comfortable saying “I don’t know”
Adam Grant’s book “Think Again” is nearly always on our list of recommended books. He talks about finding the sweet spot of confidence and quotes this well-known figure
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence then does knowledge”.
Charles Darwin.
Being willing to learn, unlearn and relearn will be an increasingly valuable tool.
6. Slow Down for Important Decisions
AI encourages speed. Reports summarised in seconds, paragraphs written in less then a minute. But Critical Thinking encourages you to make your own judgement. Some decisions need to be made slower, to allow you to really process the wisdom of your actions.
7. Keep AI as your Tool- Don’t Outsource your Thinking
Perhaps the most important question we ask participants is this:
Is AI your tool or is it your Thinker?
Used well, AI expands our capability, used carelessly, it can reduce our curiosity. We are not bashing AI here; it is an incredible tool. But all professionals need to be careful when using it not to outsource their own judgement at the same time.
Finally, it is not necessarily about having the most expensive, the most advanced AI tools. It is about having an organisation full of who know how to question, evaluate and think independently.
Want to build critical thinking across your organisation?
WorkJuggle’s Critical Thinking in the Age of AI programme helps teams develop the judgement, curiosity and decision-making skills needed to work confidently alongside AI.