Directing AI: Why the Future Needs More Visionaries

Most people aren't used to giving directions, but in the AI-driven future, developing vision and critical thinking will be essential to guide AI effectively and achieve meaningful outcomes.

Most people have never had to give directions. It’s not part of their day-to-day. Think about your own life—how often have you had to tell someone, or something, exactly what you want? For most of us, the answer is rarely. We’ve grown up in a world where most things are either done for us or where vague instructions are enough. But this is about to change.

The rise of AI isn’t just about automation—it’s about direction. To get real value from AI, people will need to develop a new skill: the ability to give precise, strategic direction. It’s not something we’re used to, but it will be critical to success in the future. This isn’t just about telling a machine what to do. It’s about having a vision, knowing what to expect, and guiding AI to achieve that outcome. And here’s the rub: most people don’t know how to do that. They’ve never had to.

The challenge we face isn’t just technical. It’s creative. It’s managerial. It’s strategic. How do you tell a machine what you want if you don’t even know what “good” looks like? How do you guide an AI if you’ve never guided anything before?

The Big Shift: From Users to Directors

We’ve become so accustomed to technology doing things for us that we’ve forgotten how to direct it. Think about how most of us interact with technology today: we ask Siri to set an alarm, Google to give us directions, or an app to remind us of a meeting. These are one-off tasks, and they don’t require much in terms of direction. But the future of AI is different.

Imagine AI as a creative partner, like an artist you’re commissioning to paint a picture for you. If you don’t have a clear vision of what you want, you’re going to get something generic, uninspired. But if you know exactly what you’re after—if you can describe the mood, the colors, the emotion—you’ll end up with something much closer to what you envisioned.

The problem is, most people haven’t learned to think this way. They’re used to clicking buttons and waiting for something to happen. They’re not used to guiding a process, step by step. And the future of AI requires just that. AI won’t just magically produce what you want. You have to tell it what you’re after. You have to direct it.

The New Role: Visionary and Critic

The real challenge of working with AI isn’t getting it to do things. It’s knowing what to ask for in the first place. That’s the hard part. Most people don’t spend time thinking critically about what they want or what would make a product, a process, or an idea great. And without that critical thinking, they’ll struggle to get anything worthwhile from AI.

In the future, people will have to step into a new role: not just users of technology, but directors. They’ll need to know what they want before they even ask for it. They’ll need to have a vision for what “good” looks like and how to get there. This requires a kind of mental shift. It’s not enough to expect AI to figure everything out. You need to know where you’re going.

But here’s the catch: most people don’t have that muscle yet. They haven’t trained their minds to think critically, to be strategic, or to anticipate what they really want. And that’s the gap we need to fill.

Can AI Help People Find Their Vision?

There’s a big question hanging over all of this: Can AI help people find that vision in the first place? If most people aren’t used to giving directions, can AI guide them toward better outcomes? Can AI help shape their thinking and help them discover what they want?

The answer is both yes and no. AI can certainly offer suggestions, provide examples, and refine ideas. It can spark inspiration. In fact, some of the most interesting moments I’ve had working with AI came from when it surprised me—offered a perspective or idea I hadn’t considered. But here’s the critical part: it only worked because I was already thinking critically. I had a sense of where I wanted to go, and the AI helped me get there.

If I didn’t know what I wanted, those suggestions wouldn’t have meant anything. I wouldn’t have known how to separate the good from the bad. And that’s the crux of the issue: AI can help, but only if you’re already on the path. You need that initial spark of vision, that intent, to guide the AI in the right direction.

Training the Inner Critic: The Key to AI Mastery

This brings us to the most important point: to work effectively with AI, people need to train their inner critic. They need to develop the ability to assess, refine, and direct. Without that, they’re just passively receiving whatever the AI generates. And passive use of AI won’t lead to groundbreaking results.

The inner critic is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened. It’s the voice in your head that asks, “Is this good enough?” or “Could this be better?” It’s the ability to look at something, not just accept it as is, but imagine how it could be improved. In the world of AI, this skill is essential. AI can generate endless possibilities, but it takes a critical mind to sift through those possibilities and decide what’s worth pursuing.

Most people haven’t developed this skill because they’ve never had to. But in the future, as AI becomes more integrated into everything from creative work to business decisions, this inner critic will be essential. Without it, people will get stuck in mediocrity, accepting whatever the AI gives them without questioning whether it could be better.

The Danger of Dependency Without Vision

There’s a real danger here. If people don’t learn how to direct AI—if they don’t develop that inner critic—they’ll become overly dependent on whatever the AI spits out. Instead of leading, they’ll follow. Instead of shaping the future, they’ll be shaped by whatever AI decides is “good enough.”

This is where vision comes into play. Having a vision isn’t just about creativity; it’s about knowing what you want and pushing for it. It’s about having a sense of direction, a goal, an understanding of what “good” looks like. And without that, AI can only get you so far.

Sure, AI can be a powerful tool for discovery. It can suggest ideas, offer examples, even generate creative content. But the real power of AI comes when you, as the director, know how to guide it. When you have a vision, AI becomes an amplifier. It enhances what you already know and helps you reach your goal faster. But if you don’t have that vision, AI is just noise. It’s a flood of information with no purpose.

The Future: Cultivating Visionaries in a World of AI

The future of AI isn’t just about better models or more sophisticated algorithms. It’s about people. It’s about training a new generation of visionaries who know how to direct AI toward meaningful outcomes. And that requires more than just technical skill. It requires critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to see the big picture.

AI has the potential to transform industries, solve complex problems, and enhance human creativity. But the people who will benefit most from AI are those who know how to direct it. They’ll be the ones who have trained their minds to think critically, who have developed a vision for what they want, and who know how to guide the AI in that direction.

The challenge is clear: we need to train people not just to use AI, but to direct it. We need to teach them to have vision, to be critical, and to push for better outcomes. Because in the future, the ability to work with AI won’t be enough. The real skill will be in knowing what to ask for and how to guide the AI toward something extraordinary.