I've been working with AI this way for a few years now. Not as a code generator, not as a fancy autocomplete, but as something to actually think with. That shift in how I use it happened a long time ago, and it's the thing I keep coming back to when people ask how I get so much out of these tools.
Most people are still in autocomplete mode
Most people I talk to at work use AI in one of two ways. Copilot for autocomplete. Or paste an error into ChatGPT when something breaks.
Nothing wrong with either. They're useful. But there's a whole layer above that most people haven't really touched yet, and that's where the interesting stuff is.
The difference is intent. Using AI to write code for you is one thing. Using AI to think through a problem with you is something else entirely.
What thinking with AI actually looks like
Before I write a single line of code for a new feature, I describe the problem. Not "write me a function that does X." More like "here's what I'm trying to achieve, here are the constraints I'm working with, what approaches would you consider?"
The response isn't always right. Sometimes it's off. But the act of articulating the problem clearly enough for the AI to respond usefully is half the work. And often it surfaces angles I hadn't thought about, which is the part that actually moves things forward.
It's less "give me an answer" and more "help me see this better."
Not just for code
This is where it gets interesting. AI stops being a developer tool and starts being a general-purpose thinking tool.
I use it for project planning, breaking down features, thinking through trade-offs before I commit to an approach. I use it for creative work, including stuff for my band Ghost Nation where the problems are completely different. I use it for learning, poking at unfamiliar technologies or codebases I haven't touched before.
The point isn't that AI does these things for me. It's that having something to think out loud with makes me better at all of them.
Why this is the skill that matters
The people who will get the most out of this aren't the ones with the cleverest prompt tricks. They're the ones who understand how to think with AI. Who treat it as a collaborator, not a vending machine.
That's what I mean by AI literacy. And I'd say it's the most important skill you can build right now, because the tools will keep changing, but the way you work with them is what actually compounds.