Leading the Machine: How to Think With AI, Not Like It

As AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini become part of daily life, a new challenge emerges —how do we think with it? This talk confronts the hidden cost of over-reliance: becoming a cognitive sloth. While AI accelerates outputs, it can dull our judgment, creativity, and sense-making skills.
Drawing from research interviews and Flame Centre’s hands-on workshops, this session repositions AI not as a shortcut, but as a thinking partner. We explore how to lead AI with clarity, context, and critique to empower professionals in retaining their intellectual edge. Join us to unpack a framework that enhances human-machine collaboration and builds the cognitive muscles essential in an AI-driven world.
Programme Objective
- To equip participants with a mindset and framework that enables them to lead, question, and collaborate with AI tools.
- To strengthen their critical thinking, judgment, and creativity to stay intellectually sharp and professionally relevant in an AI-driven world.
Programme Outline
- Why Thinking Still Matters: In an age of powerful AI tools, why is preserving human judgment, creativity, and reasoning essential for effective decision-making?
- What AI Can Do and What It Can’t: AI excels at processing information but lacks the contextual understanding, values, and ethical grounding that humans bring. Therefore, knowing when and how to involve human thinking is key.
- Good vs Poor Use of AI: The value of AI depends on the user’s mindset – effective users lead the process with structured thinking, while poor users blindly follow, risking irrelevant or misleading results.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this programme, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the difference between using AI for speed versus using it to enhance thinking.
- Gain awareness of a practical framework to guide more intentional and structured use of AI tools.
- Reflect on the risks of over-relying on AI and the value of retaining human judgment, context, and critique.
About the speaker
Wendy Tan is the Managing Partner of The Flame Centre, an award-winning thought leader, and an author of Wholeness in a Disruptive World and Learning Agility: Relearn, Reskill, and Reinvent. Wendy Tan combines entrepreneurship and research with a commitment to lifelong learning. During her Psychology PhD studies at Nanyang Technological University, she grew her business threefold – all while being a swim mother to three teenage children. Wendy’s work focuses on cultivating uniquely human skills to thrive in a digital world, helping purpose-driven organizations and government agencies build agile, high-performing teams. Recognized by HRO Today and InnovPlus Spark awards, she brings research-backed strategies to empower professionals to learn, adapt, and reach their full potential.

Fee
Free

When

Organised By:
National Library Board


Where
Central Public Library – Programme Room 1