Leverage AI as thought partner to boost productivity

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Using artificial intelligence as a thought partner is the best way to leverage this technology to its fullest.

“When we use AI as a thought partner, we are allowing it to work with us to make the best versions of ourselves,” said Ben Sondgeroth, owner of Exploring EdTech.

“There is a big fear that AI is going to mean the loss of the ability for humans to have their own judgment and then we lose out on human relationships,” said Sondgeroth during a presentation at the BASF Innovation Symposium.

“That’s a legitimate concern; however, if you use it as a partner instead of just doing things for you, you can talk to more customers and have better relationships,” he said. “AI can help free up your time, but only if it is used responsibly and correctly.”

AI is a computer that predicts patterns and data.

“It cannot think for itself, it cannot create new content and it does not have an imagination,” Sondgeroth said. “It takes information that it has been trained on and it is able to give that information to you in a way that makes sense for you.”

AI is going to replace some jobs, the educational technology leader said, but it is not going to take everybody’s job.

“And it is going to create a lot of jobs,” Sondgeroth said.

“If we don’t embrace AI or use it, the person who is using it and doing the same role as you is going to accomplish his tasks faster and he is going to get to another farm quicker than you,” he said. “That person is ultimately going to become the person who takes your job because he can do more without actually spending more time to do it.”

Over the past three years, Sondgeroth has fully embraced AI.

“I don’t think I have been more creative or more efficient and productive than ever before,” he said. “It’s all because I am able to use artificial intelligence to help me accomplish what I set out to do that day.”

Many people are using AI and might not even realize it.

“Goggle Maps uses AI to help you get to places,” Sondgeroth said. “If you have Siri or Alexa, you used AI.”

When searching on Goggle, the AI summary at the top of the response was generated by AI.

“AI is all around us, so it’s about maximizing it now,” the educational technology leader said.

A person does not have to be a computer scientist to get the most out of AI, Sondgeroth said.

“AI systems are trained on trillions of pieces of data and they are only able to work if they have the data they need to give you a response,” he said. “Those pieces of data are coming from across the Internet.”

All the pieces of information go into the database, Sondgeroth said, and they get broken up into a bunch of little pieces.

“When you ask a question, it finds all those pieces and gives you a response, predicting that is what you want it to do for you,” he said.

One word can make the whole answer wrong.

“So, as awesome as AI is, this is where we always must have caution when using it,” Sondgeroth said. “We always want to be proofreading everything that we do.”

Proper prompting is very important when using Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot.

“When you are prompting, make sure you include three things — context, specificity and structure,” Sondgeroth said.

“Think of it as you’re talking to another person,” he said. “If you ask a bad question or a less detailed question to somebody, you are not going to get a very good answer.”

When engaging with AI, don’t stop with the first thing it tells you, Sondgeroth said.

“Ask questions, follow up and tell it, that it is wrong,” he said. “Challenge it, just like you would somebody in your office. That’s how you get the most out of artificial intelligence.”

AI cannot do all the work for a person.

“You are still the expert and you are the one that has watched that field for decades and has all the data,” Sondgeroth said. “ChatGPT can just help you make sense of it. That’s what AI is good for.”

If AI can save 10 minutes a day answering emails, 20 minutes summarizing notes and 30 minutes analyzing spreadsheets or data, that one hour per day can equal over 250 hours per year.

“Then you can spend more time with humans, get more work done and be more efficient,” Sondgeroth said.

“Don’t enter a world where AI thinks for us, enter a world where AI works with us,” he said.

For more information, go to exploringedtech.com.