#582 How to use AI as your thought partner

0:00Hi everybody, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast and before today's episode starts I wanted to let you know about something that Sarah and I have created for the summer. We are going to be launching a series all about a career well spent. We're going to release four episodes, one every Tuesday and it's going to be us in conversation with an expert who can give us a different perspective on what it means to have a career well spent. we'll talk about longevity we'll talk about relationships we'll talk about time we'll talk about making a difference we wanted this to be a community learning moment too so on Thursdays we're going to have a LinkedIn live where you can bring your questions you can bring your reflections and we'll discuss the episodes together as a community all the links you need are going to be in the squiggly careers newsletter so if this sounds like something you want to get involved in and we really, really hope you do, it's all free and it'll be a great learning moment, then all you need to do is sign up for the newsletter.

0:58Just go to squigglynewsletter.com. That's squigglynewsletter.com and we will send you everything you need to know to get involved. But for now, let's get on with today's episode. Hi, I'm Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast and you are listening to one of our weekly Squiggly Career Shortcuts. These episodes are designed to be simple, short and very effective so you can put the things into action straight away. And today I want to talk to you a bit about how to use AI as a thought partner at work and for your career. I think we're increasingly experimenting with AI and using it in lots of different ways.

1:35But one of the things that I have found really helpful is to think about it as a thought partner and to use it in different ways. And I want to talk through some of the things that have helped me in case it helps you too. So the first thing is, how can you use AI as a thought partner for your career? And for this, it doesn't really matter what platform you're using. Your company might tell you to use Copilot or maybe you're using Gemini or maybe outside of work, you're using Claude or ChatGPT. It doesn't really matter. Just use the one that is right for you. But if you're going to use it to help you as a thought partner with your career, my recommendation would be to say to it, act as my squiggly career coach.

2:16Now, even as a start point, what that will do is it will start to draw on all the things that Sarah and I have shared. So practical insights and lots of simple advice, and it will give you that kind of style back. So act as my squiggly career coach, then give it a little bit of context. What is it you need some career support with? Maybe it's caging your confidence gremlins. Maybe it's exploring your career possibilities. So you need to give it that little bit of insight into what you want it to help you with. And then the second bit is get it to ask you one question at a time to raise your awareness and then to conclude the conversation with some actions that you can take.

2:58Because what we're always trying to do is get awareness and action. And if it's going to be your squiggly career coach, that's how you want to use it. So first of all, act as my squiggly career coach, then give it a bit of context and then make sure it asks you one question at once to raise your awareness and then gives you some actions you can take away. So that's one way you can use it. Second way you can use it as a thought partner is with your sort of average week at work. So lots of us are struggling with long to do lists and lots of meetings and just so much stuff that we need to get done.

3:30And it can be so overwhelming that sometimes you don't know where to start. And AI can be a really useful thought partner with this. So what I tend to do is I do a bit of a dump at the start of a day and I just talk out loud to my AI. Most of them have got some kind of voice feature. And I find this a lot easier to do than just typing what's on my mind. So just talk to the AI. I also use a tool called Whisperflow, which my team are bored with me saying. And I will just press the button and I'll talk and I'll say, this is everything on my mind. This is everything on my list. I've also experimented with different ways of connecting my AI to my diary and my inbox.

4:09But to be honest, the most helpful thing I've found is just a talk out loud. These are things that I need to do by the end of the week. These are things that people want from me. I sometimes take a picture of my to-do list. And I say, with all that in mind, help me to prioritise my day and help me to focus on what I need to get done this week. And it is just a simple way that you can create a little bit of clarity. it doesn't take away the work that needs to be done to be honest but it does help you get started especially if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed by it so that's how you can use it with your week at work and then the third way I think you can use AI as a thought partner is to build better relationships with people so in order to be at our best we need to build good relationships because none of us are doing all this on our own and whether that is people in your company or maybe it's customers, or maybe it is clients, you know, there's all we've all got a community around the work that we do.

5:02And what AI can help you do is build better relationships with those people. Now, there's a couple of things you can do. There are some ready made tools, there's a tool called crystal nose, that can integrate with your LinkedIn. And it can tell you a little bit about maybe the profile of the person that you are trying to build a better relationship with. And then you can play to that profile. So you can use tools like that. Or to be honest, you can just talk to the AI again and let them know everything you know about that person. So I might talk about Sarah, my co-host, and I might say, you know, this is how Sarah comes across in our meetings.

5:36Here are some examples of the emails and messages that she sends me. Give me a sense as to what her personality profile might be and what the best ways for me to work with her are. So you're going to have to give it a little bit of data. Like I say, you can just share your reflections on a person or you can cut and paste some interactions you've had with them. But using that information, you can ask the AI to help you adapt your approach so you can be at your best with that person. So I hope that has helped you maybe think creatively about how you can use AI as a thought partner. We don't want to outsource everything to AI, like you're going to be at your best using it alongside the work that you're doing.

6:17And so whether that's for your career thinking or your week at work or the relationships you're building. These are just ways that you can be the even better version of yourself with a bit of an AI thought partner by the side. Don't forget, we always have episodes on a Tuesday. There are Borrowed Brilliance episodes where we do a bit of a deep dive and our Squiggly Shortcuts come out every Thursday. Make sure you're subscribed to the Squiggly Careers podcast wherever you listen so that you don't miss out.