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: 

1. Recognize the difference between using AI for speed versus using it to enhance thinking.
2. Gain awareness of a practical framework to guide more intentional and structured use of AI tools.
3. 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.

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