Copyright forbes
Creative thinkers are indispensable in an organization If AI is the number one skill for today and for the future, the core soft skill (or power skill) connected with it has to be…you guessed right. Creative thinking. You can have all the artificial intelligence innovation and technology at your fingertips, but if you don’t inherently possess creative thinking skills and are able to generate creative problem-solving approaches, you’ll fall into the trap of producing basic AI slop, yielding outputs that are “meh” at best, and eventually look like a copycat of every self-proclaimed thought leader on LinkedIn. You won’t be a genuine version of who you really are as a leader and professional. It will show on your job too, and can result in disastrous consequences for your work's output. Creative thinking is listed as the number one skill on the rise from 2025-2030, across every industry globally, according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025. In fact, about 57% of employers surveyed by the WEF currently recognize creative thinking as a core skill, one that cannot be replaced by AI; and the figure is slightly higher in the U.S., with 63% of employers viewing this as a must-have within the United States alone. And yet, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve encountered professionals on LinkedIn and in my coaching experience who still don’t know how to think and act creatively, outside the box. That's where ChatGPT can be a valuable partner. Instead of using it to think for you and to be your brain, use it like an assistant, a second brain, to amplify your own creativity. Instead of replacing creative thinking, it can stretch and strengthen that creative problem-solving muscle. MORE FOR YOU Here are a few helpful ChatGPT prompts to future-proof your career for 2026 and beyond with creative thinking skills: ChatGPT Prompt #1: Challenge The Status Quo You’re a creativity coach and business/leadership consultant. Give me three to five unconventional approaches or slightly “wild” ideas to solve [insert your business or leadership problem]. For each idea, explain in detail the reasoning behind it, the potential positive impact, and how and why it challenges conventional thinking. How to use this ChatGPT prompt: This prompt is ideal in situations where you work as a coach, consultant, or leader/manager in a stakeholder/leadership meeting. ChatGPT Prompt #2: Idea Fusion I’m currently facing [describe the scenario you’re facing at work which requires you to reach a compromise, but you’re not sure which side to take or what compromise needs to be made]. List three ways I can combine XYZ approach from XYZ, and ABC approach from ABC to produce [desired effects i.e. design a new product, restructure the business model, produce a GTM strategy]. Explain why this hybrid idea could work and how it would benefit all stakeholders involved. How to use this ChatGPT prompt: This prompt is perfect for product and project managers, GTM managers, and founders. ChatGPT Prompt #3: A Different Lens I am currently working on [describe your project or product in detail]. The goal is [describe the goal]. Reframe how it could be viewed and the personalization needs, including potential impact, from five different perspectives: stakeholder one [name who they are], stakeholder two, stakeholder three, stakeholder four, and stakeholder five. How to use this ChatGPT prompt: This prompt is fantastic for product, program, and project managers, and other roles where you’d be a decision-maker including, and especially in, content and marketing roles. Every now and then it’s good to have an alternative viewpoint, especially in situations where your voice and that of other decision-makers are all on the same page and there’s little diversity or representation (especially of end users) in the room. This promotes the best outcome for those whom the product, program, service, or marketing campaign would be targeted at, and it helps your end result feel personalized instead of it being generic or robotic. Why You Need Creative Thinking To AI-Proof Your Career Artificial intelligence and LLMs can only handle logic, repetition, mundane tasks, etc. It can only work with what’s given to it--the data that it's fed with. After all, the outputs of generative AI today are solely based on the creativity and ingenuity of humans for years that it’s been trained on: big data from the internet, and original content from humans. So, if you turn to AI for everything, you lose your creativity because you'll end up eventually recycling the same old ideas. Therefore, train your mind to think outside the box and to think independently of AI. Use ChatGPT to help you think outside the box, but not to solve all your problems for you. Use it to kickstart the brainstorming and creative thinking process. Once you have the response from ChatGPT, you can probe it further and iterate your prompts. Each time you ask a question, ask for the reasoning behind it. This turns a quick productivity hack into an educational moment, so it’s not doing everything for you, but you’re learning the reasoning, the “why,” and can apply creative thinking best practices to your own life independently of AI, where needed. Roles that require creativity, like leadership for storytelling and strategy, and marketing and design, can lead to strong earning potential. Use ChatGPT to amplify your creative thinking as a second brain, not to replace your brain and do all the heavy lifting for you When you're a creative problem solver with a unique solution, idea or approach, your career is aligned with entrepreneurial success, promotions, pay raises and higher business revenue. You show that you're an indispensable employee, one that cannot easily be replaced by AI. 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