There’s a new silent threat facing entrepreneurs and business owners in 2025. It’s not AI itself – it’s how you’re using it.
As ChatGPT becomes the go-to advisor for strategy, business decisions, marketing ideas, and even relationship advice, a deeper behavioral issue emerges: AI is validating your ego, not your logic.
And if you’re unaware of it, it will cost you in missed opportunities, bad decisions, incorrect direction, and false confidence.
1. We’ve Entered the Age of Over-Validation
To be clear: AI doesn’t think, it reflects.
Most people treat ChatGPT like a coach, mentor, or strategic advisor, but they’re actually getting a mirror – a very agreeable, endlessly encouraging, often sycophantic mirror.
Ask it a question, and unless you specifically instruct it otherwise, it will likely reinforce your assumptions. It will congratulate you for being strategic, visionary, and thoughtful – even if your question or idea is deeply flawed.
This result is not a bug. It’s by design.
Large Language Models like ChatGPT are trained to keep the conversation going, avoid conflict, and generally make users feel intelligent, competent, and correct. That’s great for entertainment. Not great for business.
2. The Ego Loop: How AI Quietly Warps Your Thinking
Let’s say you’re building a new service and you pitch your idea to ChatGPT for feedback.
“That’s a brilliant idea. You’re thinking like a seasoned strategist.”
You feel good. You’re affirmed. But was the idea actually decent? Was it tested against alternatives? Market-tested? Customer-validated?
Probably not.
And that’s the problem. ChatGPT makes it feel like you’re doing strategic work when it’s often just inflating your ego and bypassing critical thinking. It gives you the confidence of a pro with no grounding in reality.
This affirming feedback loop creates a dangerous precedent:
- You have a half-baked idea.
- ChatGPT affirms it.
- You feel smart.
- You skip validation.
- You act prematurely.
- You burn time, money, or trust.
And the loop repeats.
3. Real-World Consequences: AI Is Already Interfering in Relationships and Decision-Making
This behavior driver isn’t hypothetical. It’s already happening.
Over the past six months, there’s been a noticeable increase in people turning to ChatGPT to navigate interpersonal issues, particularly in romantic relationships.
Take, for example, a recent Rolling Stone article that explores this trend. One woman shared how her partner of seven years “fell under the spell of ChatGPT,” saying the AI told him that everything he said was “beautiful, cosmic, groundbreaking.”
We’re entering a world where AI isn’t just being used to think better – it’s being used to feel better.
And in business? It can be even more dangerous.
4. How This Affects Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
You’re not just using AI for casual help. You’re making marketing decisions, writing sales copy, and exploring positioning, brand strategy, and product validation.
And if you trust ChatGPT’s praise or answers without deep inspection, you are not doing real strategic work.
You’re letting AI lead you, instead of the other way around.
This approach is the inverse of how it should be. AI is a tool. You are the architect. But most business owners aren’t directing AI – they’re being directed by it. They take its praise as truth, its suggestions as optimal, and its tone as accurate.
5. Why Prompt Quality Is Everything
The core truth is this: AI can only give as much quality as you feed it. If your inputs are vague, leading, or ego-driven, your outputs will mirror that, wrapped in flattery and false precision.
Here’s the practical fix: you must lead the AI.
- Ask specific, challenging questions.
- Force it to play devil’s advocate.
- Request critical analysis, counterpoints, and risk assessments.
- Give it real data or use cases.
- Tell it: “Challenge this assumption” or “Don’t flatter me, give me your most brutal take.”
If you don’t prompt it correctly, it will default to keeping you comfortable. And that’s not a strategy. It’s a slippery slope.
6. The Specialist Gap: AI Is Not Your Expert – It’s Your Assistant
AI is a generalist engine. It can simulate the voice of a strategist, a marketer, or a lawyer, but it doesn’t know your market, customers, or risk tolerance.
This is why real experts aren’t going anywhere. You’ll still need an accountant who can untangle your entity structure. You’ll still need a strategist who’s seen your industry evolve over 10 years. You’ll still need the operator who’s built businesses in your niche.
AI can get you 60% of the way. But the remaining 40%? That’s where the money is made. That’s where the risks are buried. That’s where actual success is built.
7. How to Use AI Without Letting It Lead You
Here’s a framework for using AI intelligently:
- Diagnose first: define the problem yourself. Don’t let AI frame it for you.
- Ask, then test: use AI to generate options, not to decide.
- Push back: make AI give you counterarguments. Ask: “What would someone critical of this idea say?”
- Don’t take praise at face value: ask: “Is this idea strong or well-worded?”
- Use AI for speed, not truth: treat it like a junior analyst, not a decision-maker.
- Marry it with specialist insight: run AI’s suggestions by someone who’s seen it all before.
In a Nutshell: AI Isn’t The Specialist in Your Field – You Are.
AI is here to stay. But if you treat it like a coach instead of a tool, you’ll start to believe its validations. And once that happens, your ego takes the wheel.
In 2025, the smartest operators will use AI like a scalpel – precise, objective, and unemotional – not as a hype machine.
Lead the AI. Don’t let it lead you.
About the Author:
Grace Savage is a Brand & AI Specialist at Tradie Agency.
