By programming one AI agent with a skeptical persona to question strategy and check details, the overall quality and rigor of the entire multi-agent system increases, mirroring the effect of a critical thinker in a human team.

To get robust feedback, create an AI tool that simulates a "war council." It spins up multiple AI sub-agents, each with a specific persona like "Ruthless CFO" or "Contrarian Board Member," to debate a critical decision from all angles.

Go beyond using AI for summarization by treating it as a strategic thought partner. After developing a plan, ask the AI to 'pressure test' it, 'tell you where you're wrong,' or identify blind spots to refine your thinking before presenting it to stakeholders.

When brainstorming, advanced AI models can do more than just execute commands; they can challenge a user's core constraints. In one example, the AI Fable repeatedly pushed a better onboarding strategy that the user initially dismissed, leading to a breakthrough idea the team loved.

Advanced AI tools can model an organization's internal investment beliefs and processes. This allows investment committees to use the AI to "red team" proposals by prompting it to generate a memo with a negative stance or to re-evaluate a deal based on a new assumption, like a net-zero mandate.

Elevate AI from a productivity tool to a strategic sparring partner. Prompt the AI to adopt a critical persona, like a skeptical board member, and instruct it to find weaknesses, challenge assumptions, and ask hard questions about your strategy. This provides surprisingly rigorous and unbiased feedback to strengthen your plan.

Leverage AI to gain external perspectives without meetings. Prompt it to act as a specific persona—like a skeptical CEO, an enthusiastic user, or a New York Times reviewer—to critique your work. This reveals blind spots and strengthens your idea before sharing it.

Instead of using AI to generate strategic documents, which he believes short-circuits his own thinking process, Bret Taylor uses it as a critical partner. He writes his own strategy notes and then prompts ChatGPT to critique them and find flaws. This leverages AI's analytical power without sacrificing the deliberative process of writing.

A powerful use of AI is to simulate stakeholder perspectives by creating distinct personas, including contrarians. By asking these AI personas for their views on a strategy, leaders can quickly and efficiently identify their own blind spots and challenge their assumptions before committing to a decision.