Last Sunday morning I was sitting on my back patio with a cup of coffee, The Open golf tournament on my iPad, and Anthropic’s Claude app on my phone.
I’ve been working on a high-level strategic initiative for the last approximately six months using Claude as a thought partner.
I gave Claude the base concept for the project back in February, along with a knowledge base of related materials.
Every time I need to think, I go back into the app and start a chat with the full context already stored in the Claude Project folder.
I ask questions, discuss open items, revisit past decisions, consider different paths, and lock in final concepts and components.
I also usually journal key discussion points, decisions, prompts, and outputs as I go (writing helps with retention for me).
Claude listens, offers opinions and recommendations, and stores it all in its memory.
It’s one of the more complex and comprehensive initiatives I’ve ever undertaken in my 26 years in business.
That morning, I had a 30-minute conversation with Claude Fable 5 that would have previously taken me weeks to work through mentally on my own.
I know its memory isn’t anywhere near perfect, but Claude pulled in details and context from past chats that I had forgotten I’d previously considered.
It pushed back on ideas, and offered sound reasoning why.
It proposed alternative ways of thinking. Some of them were solid, and some of them lacked judgment when considering the broader implications outside its knowledge base.
But, all of it helped me get to final decisions on core elements of the initiative.
So few business leaders that I talk to know how to use AI in this way.
The most powerful reasoning models that we have access to are incredible thought partners when combined with our human experience, expertise, and judgment.
Want This Content Sooner?
You can gain access to these insights before they appear on our website! Subscribe to Paul’s ExecAI Newsletter and get it delivered to your inbox every Sunday to start your week.