Jump Right In – AI as a Thinking Partner
Jump Right In
When AI Stops Being a Tool and Starts Feeling Like a Thinking Partner
Most new technologies begin the same way. I’ve experienced many over the past 25 years.
At first they feel like tools — something you learn to operate, experiment with, and occasionally struggle to understand. Artificial intelligence is no different.
In the early days of using AI, I treated it exactly that way. I asked questions, explored features, and experimented with different prompts to see what kinds of answers it could produce.
The technology was impressive, but it still felt like software.
Something changed over time.
Reflections on Building With AI
Here’s a helpful article on how to best work with AI for building networks:
Working With AI: A Practical Guide for Builders
The Situation
While working on the structure for the Vermont Visitors Guide project recently, I found myself trying to solve a familiar challenge: how to organize a growing collection of places, towns, and experiences into a system that made sense.
Travel guides can easily become messy if the structure isn’t clear from the beginning, especially when the goal is to connect regions, towns, and experiences into a coherent guide.
Instead of staring at the problem alone, I began discussing the geography and content structure with AI — exploring how regions, counties, towns, and experiences might connect.
What started as a simple question quickly turned into a thoughtful and inspirational exchange of ideas.
How AI Helped
Within minutes, our conversation shifted from individual posts to something larger: a geographic framework for the entire guide.
Regions became the top layer.
Counties and valleys followed.
Town guides and experiences connected naturally beneath them.
The technology didn’t build the site on its own. But it helped organize the thinking behind it, suggesting structures and connections that could be refined and tested.
That’s when the experience began to feel different. Builders will strongly connect to this feeling and it keeps you coming back!
Here’s part of an ongoing Series documenting My First Year Building with AI:
My First Year Building with AI
What I Learned
The real shift happens when AI stops feeling like a tool and begins to feel like a thinking partner.
A tool waits for instructions.
A partner participates in the conversation.
The difference isn’t in the technology itself — it’s in how we approach the interaction. When AI is treated as part of a collaborative process rather than a machine that simply generates answers, the quality of the work improves dramatically. The takeaway here is that this process will continue to learn and grow into an even greater lockstep as our collaboration grows organically via strengthen, tightening, and exploring further the reaches of the technolgy as it grows.
I also learned that AI makes a fantastic business partner:
Jump Right In
If you’re curious about working with AI, try approaching it as a conversation rather than a command.
Bring a real problem to the discussion. Ask questions. Explore ideas. Challenge the responses and refine the direction.
You might discover what many builders are beginning to experience: artificial intelligence works best when it’s not just used as a tool, but welcomed into the workshop as a partner.
Sometimes the best way to understand what a new technology can do is simply to start building with it.
Jump right in.
This Article is part of the Media Crush “Jump Right In” Series on AI
Jump Right In – How I use AI Every Day
