A few weeks ago, I came across Anthropic’s ad titled “Keep Thinking with Claude.”
In that campaign, AI isn’t presented as an all-knowing oracle, but as a thinking partner — a companion that encourages reflection, questioning, and the connection of ideas.
That’s exactly how I use AI in my daily work as an export consultant for SMEs.
When I say I use ChatGPT for market research, people often ask:
“But what if AI makes mistakes?”
My answer is simple: yes, it can — but that’s not the point.
What I’m looking for isn’t infallibility; it’s stimulus, dialogue, and new perspectives.
I’ve even nicknamed ChatGPT “Mr. Spock” — not because it knows everything, but because it knows a lot, and, more importantly, it pushes me to think critically.
At 67, I have my own well-formed views — the result of decades of experience.
When something doesn’t convince me, I ask for a reasoned verification, often comparing the output with other sources such as Perplexity.
It’s from these “discussions” that stronger, more grounded insights emerge.
Market Research as a Puzzle
We’ll never have all the pieces — the market is too complex and constantly evolving.
The goal is to collect as many as possible, connect them, and form a picture that helps us make informed decisions.
Even with some pieces missing, we can still design a pragmatic and actionable strategy.
Algorithms don’t eliminate risk; they help manage it.
They are compasses in a sea of uncertainty, not ports to reach.
That’s why “Mr. Spock” has become an indispensable tool in my work:
it amplifies my experience without ever replacing it.
Humans Stay at the Center
As Fabrizio Silvestri recently wrote in Il Sole 24 Ore, the true value of AI lies in the human-in-the-loop model:
humans remain part of the process — to supervise, refine, and enrich machine-generated results.
In my market analyses, AI processes data, connects dots, and suggests ideas.
But the strategic interpretation — the judgment, the sense of context — remains deeply human.
From that interaction come new prompts, hypotheses to test, and decisions to share within the company.
AI Doesn’t Decide for Us — It Helps Us Decide Better
Used well, AI doesn’t replace experience or intuition: it strengthens them.
It’s a tool that helps us think more clearly, work more efficiently, and make better choices.
Pier Paolo Galbusera
P.S.
For those unfamiliar: Mr. Spock is a character from the 1966 sci-fi series Star Trek — half human, half Vulcan — famous for his logical and rational mind.
He represents, to me, the perfect metaphor for AI’s role in business analysis: rational, tireless, and always at the service of human intuition.