2025's AI Paradox: Great Assistant, Poor Guide

AI systems in 2025 are extraordinary at helping you execute a plan, but surprisingly poor at telling you what plan to pursue. Imagine this: a biotech researcher feeds a promising dataset into an AI system and asks "What breakthrough should I pursue next?" A founder asks an AI model to determine their startup's strategic direction. A physicist queries AI for the next big question in quantum mechanics; they are all left with suddenly vague and hollow answers. For these questions, AI can give you frameworks and options, pros and cons, but no real insight.

This observation has profound implications for how we should use AI in business, science, and beyond. With almost as much early career experience as one can have with these new AI systems, I see a clear pattern emerging – AI excels at execution but stumbles when it comes to strategic planning. It's like having an incredibly talented assistant who can tackle any task you assign, but struggles to tell you which tasks actually matter.

Execution Excellence

When you know what you want, AI is transformative. Consider the following scenarios:

You're a writer with a clear story in mind. AI can help you polish your prose, catch inconsistencies, and even suggest compelling phrases, all while maintaining your voice and intent.

You're a developer who knows exactly what feature you need to build. AI can help you write the code faster, catch edge cases you might have missed, and even suggest optimizations - all in service of your clear vision.

You're a researcher with a specific hypothesis. AI can help you outline experiments, analyze data, find relevant papers, and articulate your findings - all in pursuit of the question you chose to investigate.

In each case, the magic happens because you're in the driver's seat. You know the destination; AI just helps you get there faster and more effectively.

When the Path Isn't Clear

Now, flip the script and watch what happens:

Ask AI to tell you what kind of story you should write, and it offers bland suggestions based on analyzing popular trends. Nothing original, nothing that speaks to your unique voice or vision.

Ask AI to tell you what features your product needs, and it generates a generic list that could apply to any similar product. Nothing that captures the unique value proposition you're trying to create.

Ask AI to tell you what you should research, and it produces safe, incremental suggestions based on analyzing current trends. Nothing breakthrough, nothing that would reshape a field.

Why This Matters

This subtle yet profound distinction has implications for how we should use current AI system in our work and lives. AI isn't here to tell us what matters or where to go, that responsibility still falls to us as human operators. AI is here to help us execute more effectively once we've decided what matters. That part - the vital work of determining direction and purpose - remains uniquely human.

Looking Ahead

If scaling laws hold, the pace of innovation in AI will be unlike anything in human history. What is true today may not be true tomorrow. Still, when thinking about how to leverage AI for maximum personal and professional impact, it is important to keep the following in mind:

Organizations and individuals who thrive in the AI era won't be those who try to compete with AI at execution tasks. Nor will they be those who blindly follow AI's suggestions about what to do next. The winners will be those with increased agency - who use their specialized human judgment to set direction and make meaningful choices, then leverage AI's extraordinary capabilities to execute on those choices more effectively than ever before.

Conclusion

In February 2025, the most powerful use of AI starts with clarity: know where you want to go, then let AI help you get there faster. That's where AI is spectacular - not in choosing destinations, but in turbocharging the journey.

The current state of AI belongs to those who grasp this truth: AI amplifies decisions, it doesn't make them. Master this distinction, and you'll unlock AI's full potential while sidestepping its limitations.