Key takeaways
- If you only ask AI questions, you use a fraction of its potential.
- Three steps: spar first (AI asks back), then research, then execute in agent mode.
- Agent mode only works with the full context from the prep work.
If you still only ask AI questions, you use a fraction of its potential. The difference between "quite nice" and "real lever" lies in a three-step move I ran through on a concrete project: setting up a crowdfunding campaign.
1. Spar instead of query
The first step is the most important and the one almost nobody takes: don't let the AI answer, let it ask. Instead of "write me a plan" it's "ask me the critical questions you need and challenge my assumptions."
The passive answer machine becomes a sparring partner that exposes gaps before they get expensive.
2. Research, 3. execute in agent mode
Only then comes the research: compare the relevant options, in this case the crowdfunding platforms in the DACH region. And then execution in agent mode, all the way to creating the account and profile.
This only works because the AI has the full context from the prior steps. Exactly this thinking in sparring, context and execution is what we bring into AI projects in the Mittelstand.
