One of the most interesting things I’ve observed about AI tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini is that two people can use the same tool and arrive at completely different outcomes.
At first, that seems strange. After all, they’re using the same technology.
The difference is often not the AI.
It’s the user.
AI can only work with the information it receives. The questions we ask, the assumptions we share, and the details we choose to include all influence the outcome. If important information is missing, the AI has no reliable way of knowing what it hasn’t been told.
In other words, AI gives us what we ask for.
It doesn’t automatically give us what we don’t yet know we need.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that people naturally focus on answers. It makes sense. Answers feel like progress. They create certainty and help us move forward.
But answers are only as good as the questions that came before them.
I’ve seen situations where two people looked at the same opportunity and reached completely different conclusions. More often than not, the difference wasn’t intelligence or effort. It was the questions they were asking. One focused on the opportunity while the other focused on the risks. One looked at what could go right while the other asked what could go wrong.
Neither perspective was wrong.
They were simply looking through different lenses.
The same principle applies when using AI. What interests me most isn’t the answer that appears on the screen. It’s the thinking that happened before the answer appeared.
- What question was asked?
- What assumptions were included?
- What information was left out?
- What alternatives were considered?
These questions often have a greater impact on the outcome than the answer itself.
AI can help analyse information, organise ideas, and explore possibilities. What it cannot reliably do is identify information that never enters the conversation.
If we don’t know which questions to ask, we may never uncover the information that matters most.
That’s why I’ve become convinced that one of the most important skills in the age of AI isn’t getting better answers.
It’s learning how to ask better questions.
AI may give us what we want.
But understanding what we need is still our responsibility.
This is why I believe skills remain so important in the age of AI. The tools are becoming more capable, but the ability to think critically, challenge assumptions, and ask better questions remains a distinctly human capability.