• by Kendell Petersen , November 26, 2025

Use it too much, and people think you are lazy. Don’t use it at all, and you’ve already fallen behind. So, where is that perfect middle ground for AI integration? The space between over-reliance and fear of becoming outdated?

We aren’t replacing thinking. We just want to augment it. How do we keep our critical thinking sharp while implementing AI to speed up our work?

Let’s start by thinking about AI as an escalator. If you are only using AI, you’ve stepped on the escalator, but you're standing still. You’ll get somewhere, but you aren’t doing any work to get there. If you only use your brain, you are taking the stairs. It's slower, more rigorous, but in the end can be more rewarding. But when you use AI and your brain, it allows you to walk up the escalator. You’re moving with speed and intention. You are still thinking, but faster, deeper, and better. That’s augmentation.

Here are four ways you can integrate AI into your workflows, continuing to walk up the AI escalator.

Pressure-testing strategy. Pressure-testing is when we get AI to play devil's advocate. Asking questions like, “Why might this positioning fall flat in a real-world context?” or “What would a cynical consumer have to say about this messaging?” allows us to challenge bias and gain a new perspective. The hope is we can beat consumers to the punch and fix the cracks before they become a bigger issue. 

Simulated IDIs and building buyer personas. AI can fill in for mock interviews and behave as different audience types: the skeptical Gen Z buyer, the values-driven parent, a wellness-obsessed runner, or even a boomer who thinks they’re a tech guru. This doesn't replace qualitative research, but it can enhance it, such as giving new insights that we can then refine and compare against the other research conducted.

Benefit laddering (forward and reverse). With AI assisting us, we can ladder up from product features to functional benefits to emotional payoff, ending at the identity signal. Then easily reverse that order. Using questions like, “Where might we be overreaching?” or “What’s missing from this emotional layer?” helps shorten the path from generic to resonant. 

Tension mining. Some of the most powerful messaging comes from revealing the tensions consumers are facing. Addressing the internal contradictions is a way you can better connect with your target audience. Learning the answers to questions like, “What do parents say about screen time vs. what they feel?” or “What do fitness lovers post online vs. what they privately struggle with?” can uncover a new depth to your messaging. AI can help surface these contradictions faster, so you can build strategy around real tension, not just safe assumptions.

Using AI in your workflow doesn’t make you lazy if you’re using it to explore more ideas, test more tension, and iterate more thoughtfully. We can still shape strategy, decide what matters, and define the insights—just faster.

So yes, use the escalator. But walk quickly up it.