Introduction

Running a business means making both simple and complex decisions every day. When AI entered the picture, many business owners hoped it would make their decision-making process much faster and easier. Ask AI a question, get the answer, and move on.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it usually works out.

AI can be useful, but broadly asking it what to do often leads to generic advice, half-right answers, or recommendations that ignore the real-life constraints you’re working with. When that happens, people either follow the AI tool’s output without question or ignore it completely after suffering through multiple prompts that just waste their time. Neither approach helps you make a better decision.

However, when used correctly, AI is your ideal thinking partner.

It can help you weigh options, test assumptions, and look at trade-offs you might miss on your own. The key is to know when and how to involve AI, and to remind yourself that the final decision is yours.

In this workshop, you’ll apply the “thinking partner” approach by working through one real business decision, step by step. Each step focuses on a specific part of the decision-making process, with prompts and exercises designed to help you think more clearly before moving on.

Use AI to Support Better Decisions

As you learn how to use AI to support your decision-making process, not replace it, you’ll be able to:

• Break down complex decisions into manageable parts

• Identify assumptions and risks that are easy to overlook

• Generate realistic options based on your unique constraints

• Compare trade-offs before committing to a direction

AI is fast and persuasive, producing output which often sounds convincing at first glance. That’s exactly why it can be risky if you use it without structure and limits. If you make the mistake of treating AI as an authority, skipping fact checks, or asking it to choose the right course of action, you risk going in the wrong direction or losing trust.

Instead, you’re going to practice using AI in a way that keeps judgment, responsibility, and final decisions where they belong: in your hands.

What You’ll Learn in This Workshop

By the end of this workshop, you’ll have worked through one key decision you need to make. You’ll also have a repeatable way to use AI as a thinking partner for future business decisions, without handing over control or relying on guesswork.

You’ll be able to:

• Define the role AI should and shouldn’t play in your business decision-making process

• Break a business decision into facts, assumptions, constraints, and preferences you can work through with AI

• Use AI to generate realistic decision options based on the details you’ve identified

• Test assumptions and evaluate trade-offs so you can assess decision options more objectively

• Make a decision and then use AI to reflect on your reasoning, documenting what you chose

Action Steps:

1. Write down one recent business decision that felt stressful or difficult to make.

2. Identify something about the decision that felt uncertain, involved a trade-off, or relied on a guess.

3. Note how you would normally ask AI for help with a decision like this, if at all.