Use AI effectively to optimize decisions

- We've tackled making big decisions and using our past to improve our future. Now you're going to learn three decision making strategies that you can use with AI to make everyday decisions. The first is the pro con analysis. This is a list of the pros. The positives and the cons are the negatives of the decision you're evaluating. It can be used for a single decision, such as, should I buy a hybrid car? Or it can be used between options such as which hybrid car should I buy? The Pro/Con is a useful analysis tool because it organizes information into two different viewpoints, one positive and one negative. Seeing the decision laid out as a list of upsides and downsides can help you to think about your own needs and motivations, and it can also lead you to further questions and research. To use the pro con with AI, ask, "Make a pro/con list for buying a hybrid car." Try typing that into your favorite AI tool, and then in the decision strategies handout. Jot down your top two aha moments from the results you got. What did you learn about buying a hybrid that perhaps you hadn't considered? The next decision making strategy is data analysis. Collecting information is not the same as making meaning of it. We may have collected data but not fully synthesized it. Interpreting data is a key decision making skill, and AI is well equipped to quickly read through and make sense of a lot of information. So for our car example, I found a data set of survey responses to how hybrid cars perform in the snow. You'll see this data set in your handouts. Then I uploaded the data to AI and I asked it to do the analysis for me. I said, "Pull key insights "from this hybrid car snow survey data." Using your preferred GenAI, upload the spreadsheet or copy the data into the AI engine and ask it to pull key insights from the data that may be important in your buying process. This practice will prepare you to use GenAI to examine a data set. The third decision making strategy is storytelling. Stories help us make sense of facts and data, and it organizes information into a narrative that shows us how the pieces fit together. Human brains are naturally attuned to stories, so framing decisions this way helps us reach conclusions. To get AI involved, you could ask it to share three stories about a decision you're considering. One story that works out well with a happy ending, one that's neutral, that has neither a good nor a bad outcome, and a story where the decision fails. This will give you what is known as a scenario analysis that shows you different ways that a decision may play out. I directed AI, "Tell me three short stories of "how purchasing a hybrid will work out well, "fairly and poorly, "so I may better understand the variables in this decision." The results were illuminating, and you'll see them on the screen after this video. They actually changed how I thought about buying a hybrid car and my daily life. I hadn't realized that the heavy battery pack, for example, can reduce ground clearance, which can make this kind of a car an issue on steep inclines. Now it's your turn using your AI engine for input. Document your insights from the three stories that AI generated for you, and now you'll have three additional decision making strategies to use with AI for better big decisions.