How I Use AI Without Losing the Human Side of Leadership
There seems to be a lot of conversation right now about whether AI is good, bad, helpful, dangerous, overhyped, or underutilized.
My answer is usually the same:
AI is a tool. Like any tool, it can be used well or poorly.
As a business owner, I'm constantly deciding what actually needs me and what doesn't. AI has not replaced strategy, coaching, critical thinking, or relationship-building. Those are the parts of my work that only I can do.
What AI has done is help me reduce the time I spend on administrative work, synthesis, and processing information so I can spend more time with clients and less time buried in follow-up tasks.
Here are four practical ways I use AI in my business every week.
1. Thinking Out Loud on Walks
One of my favorite uses of AI is voice mode.
Like many leaders, I process best when I'm moving. Some of my best ideas happen while I'm walking, not sitting behind a desk.
In the past, I would call a friend, leave myself voice memos, or simply think through ideas in my head. Now, I often use voice mode to talk through a challenge, a decision, a framework I'm building, or a piece of content I'm creating.
The benefit is threefold:
I get movement and exercise
I get to verbally process ideas
AI helps me connect dots and identify themes I might have missed
It is not making decisions for me. It is helping me organize and refine my thinking.
2. Finding Patterns Across Client Conversations
Much of my work involves coaching leadership teams and consulting with organizations.
That means I am often talking with multiple people within the same company, church, or nonprofit.
Historically, finding patterns across those conversations required extensive note review and manual analysis. Today, I can use AI to help identify recurring themes.
For example:
What concerns are showing up repeatedly?
Where is there alignment?
Where are people experiencing frustration?
What issues are being described differently by different people?
The insights still require interpretation and discernment. But AI helps me surface patterns much faster than I could on my own.
3. Turning Sticky Notes Into Strategic Insight
When I facilitate onsite workshops, we often fill walls with sticky notes.
Every participant gets their own color. They write responses to questions like:
What's working?
What's not working?
What opportunities do we see?
What obstacles are holding us back?
By the end of the session, there may be dozens or even hundreds of sticky notes covering the walls.
In the past, someone would have to manually transcribe everything into a spreadsheet or document. That process could take days.
Today, I can take photos of the walls, upload them into ChatGPT, and begin identifying themes and patterns almost immediately.
Instead of spending my energy organizing information, I can spend my energy interpreting what it means.
4. Accelerating Two-Day Onsite Engagements
One of the most powerful ways I use AI happens between Day 1 and Day 2 of an onsite engagement.
Throughout the first day, I collect information from conversations, workshops, assessments, notes, recordings, and sticky-note exercises.
At the end of the day, I upload that information and ask AI to help organize the key themes, challenges, opportunities, and areas of alignment.
The result is not a final answer.
The result is clarity.
Rather than spending hours manually sorting through everything, I can walk into Day 2 with a much clearer understanding of where the team needs to focus.
That allows us to spend more time solving problems and less time trying to remember what happened yesterday.
AI Is Not the Magic. Clarity Is.
The leaders who benefit most from AI are not necessarily the ones using it the most.
They are the ones using it intentionally.
AI is not replacing coaching, consulting, leadership, creativity, or strategy.
It is helping remove friction from the work.
For me, that means spending less time organizing information and more time helping leaders gain clarity, make decisions, and move forward.
And at the end of the day, that's what The Ready Network is all about.
Helping leaders cut through the noise and focus on what matters most.
I'd love to hear from you: What's one practical way you're using AI in your work right now?