A What’s Next Reflection
I recently watched a video of Dan Pink asking AI to be brutally honest with him. He had it assess his blind spots, walk him through a personal SWOT analysis, and outline 90-day, one-year, and three-year plans. The feedback was direct. Some of it was uncomfortable. Some of it was accurate in ways that likely made him pause. All of it made him chuckle and consider the feedback.
It made me think about where I am in my own work.
For most of my career as a psychologist, advisor, author, and corporate executive, value has involved producing tangible things: reports, plans, strategy documents, client engagements, and leadership sessions. All of that required clear thinking in messy environments and helping people navigate risk, uncertainty, and personalities. Production mattered, but what really mattered was what sat behind it.
Now AI can draft the memo. It can summarize research, outline options, generate marketing strategies, and suggest talent development plans. I’m using it. I’m experimenting across platforms, taking courses, and practicing daily to understand how it works and how it can better serve my clients.
But I’ve realized something important. The real challenge is not mastering the tool. It’s making sure the tool strengthens judgment rather than replaces it.
AI is excellent at generating output. It does not live with consequences. It does not sit well with someone who may be losing a job. It does not weigh the emotional cost of a poorly timed decision or understand the role of relationships in making a team or plan successful. It can organize information, but it cannot carry responsibility.
When leaders talk to me about AI, the anxiety is rarely about the technology. It’s easy enough to learn even the basics to gain benefits. The deeper truth is about identity. If a machine can do much of what I’ve been doing, where do I fit?
That question can be unsettling. It can also be clarifying.
If your work has been primarily about producing polished deliverables, AI will feel threatening. If your work is grounded in framing the right questions, interpreting nuance, and guiding decisions when the stakes are real, AI becomes leverage. It can surface options more quickly, test scenarios, expand thinking, and get you there quicker
The decision, however, rests with you and you alone
At this stage of my career, and with my focus on What’s Next, I see AI as a tool that accelerates production and sharpens analysis. What it does not replace is the accumulated judgment that comes from years of my lived experience. Clients don’t come to me for a template or a questionnaire. They come when they face a decision that affects their identity, family, legacy, or future. That is my value.
AI can outline the paths. Wisdom decides which one to take.
If you’re wrestling with what your contribution looks like in this new landscape, that’s the work I’m engaged in now with leaders who are rethinking their next chapter. Not how to avoid technology, and not how to worship it, but how to integrate it in a way that aligns with who they are and where they want to go.
And my disclosure. My ChatGPT bot, Nellie, helped shape this post. I generated ideas, and itreflected on them. It shared feedback and built on those ideas. I wrote the draft, and it suggested modifications based on the throughline I wanted to create. I wrote and revised, and we created a finished version.
That collaboration reflects the point. The tool can assist. The judgment remains mine.
