Do you think generative AI (genAI) sucks? I did. The hype around everything genAI has been over the top and ridiculous for a while now. Especially at the start, most of the tools were flashy, but quickly fell apart if you tried to use them for any serious work purposes.When ChatGPT started really growing in early 2023, I turned against it hard. It wasnt just a potentially interesting research product. It was a bad concept getting shoved into everything.Corporate layoffs driven by executives who loved the idea of replacing people with unreliable robots hurt a lot of workers. They hurt a lot of businesses, too. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now all agree: genAI, in its original incarnation, just wasnt working.At the end of 2023, I wrote about Microsofts then-new Copilot AI chatbot and summed it up as a storyteller a chaotic creative engine thats been pressed into service as a buttoned-up virtual assistant, [with] the seams always showing.Youd probably use it wrong, as I noted at the time. Even if you used it right, it wasnt all that great. It felt like using a smarter autocomplete.Much has changed. At this point in 2025, gen AI tools can actually be useful but only if you use them right. And after much experimentation and contemplation, I think Ive found the secret.Ready to turn up your Windows productivity with and without AI? Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter. Ill send you free Windows Field Guides as a special welcome bonus!The power of your internal dialogueSo here it is: To get the best possible results from genAI, you must externalize your internal dialogue. Plain and simple, AI models work best when you give them more information and context.Its a shift from the way were accustomed to thinking about these sorts of interactions, but it isnt without precedent. When Google itself first launched, people often wanted to type questions at it to spell out long, winding sentences. That wasnt how to use the search engine most effectively, though. Google search queries needed to be stripped to the minimum number of words.GenAI is exactly the opposite. You need to give the AI as much detail as possible. If you start a new chat and type a single-sentence question, youre not going to get a very deep or interesting response.To put it simply: You shouldnt be prompting genAI like its still 2023. You arent performing a web search. You arent asking a question.Instead, you need to be thinking out loud. You need to iterate with a bit of back and forth. You need to provide a lot of detail, see what the system tells you then pick out something that is interesting to you, drill down on that, and keep going.You are co-discovering things, in a sense. GenAI is best thought of as a brainstorming partner. Did it miss something? Tell it maybe youre missing something and it can surface it for you. The more you do this, the better the responses will get.Its actually the easiest thing in the world. But its also one of the hardest mental shifts to make.Lets take a simple example: Youre trying to remember a word, and its on the tip of your tongue. You cant quite remember it, but you can vaguely describe it. If you were using Google to find the word, youd have to really think about how to craft the perfect search term.In that same scenario, you could rely on AI with a somewhat rambling, conversational prompt like this:Whats the word for a soft kind of feeling you get its warm, but a little cold. Its sad, but thats not quite right. You miss something, but youre happy you miss it. Its not melancholy, thats wrong, thats too sad. I dont know. It reminds me of walking home from school on a sunny fall afternoon. The sun is setting and you know it will be winter soon, and you miss summer, and you know its over, but youre happy it happened.And the genAI might respond: wistful. Thats your answer. More likely, the tool will return a list of possible words. It might not magically know you meant wistful right away but you will know the moment you see the word within its suggestions.This is admittedly an overwrought example. A shorter description of the word its kind of like this, and its kind of like that would also likely do the trick.Ramble onThe best way to sum up this strategy is simple: You need to ramble.Try this, as an experiment: Open up the ChatGPT app on your Android or iOS phone and tap the microphone button at the right side of the chat box. Make sure youre using the microphone button and not the voice chat mode button, which does not let you do this properly.(Amusingly enough, the ChatGPT Windows app doesnt support this style of voice input, and Microsofts Copilot app doesnt, either. This shows that the companies building this type of product dont really understand how its best used. If you want to ramble with your voice, youll need to use your phone or ramble by typing on your keyboard.)This is the easiest way to get started with true stream-of-consciousness rambling.Chris Hoffman, FoundryAfter you tap the microphone button, ramble at your phone in a stream-of-consciousness style. Lets say you want TV show recommendations. Ramble about the shows you like, what you think of them, what parts you like. Ramble about other things you like that might be relevant or that might not seem relevant! Think out loud. Seriously talk for a full minute or two. When youre done, tap the microphone button once more. Your rambling will now be text in the box. Your ums and speech quirks will be in there, forming extra context about the way you were thinking. Do not bother reading it if there are typos, the AI will figure it out. Click send. See what happens.Just be prepared for the fact that ChatGPT (or other tools) wont give you a single streamlined answer. It will riff off what you said and give you something to think about. You can then seize on what you think is interesting when you read the response, you will be drawn to certain things. Drill down, ask questions, share your thoughts. Keep using the voice input if it helps. Its convenient and helps you really get into a stream-of-consciousness rambling state.Did the response you got fail to deliver what you needed? Tell it. Say you were disappointed because you were expecting something else. Say youve already watched all those shows and you didnt like them. That is extra context. Keep drilling down.You dont have to use voice input, necessarily. But, if youre typing, you need to type like youre talking to yourself with an inner dialogue, stream-of-consciousness style, as if you were speaking out loud. If you say something that isnt quite right, dont hit backspace. Keep going. Say: That wasnt quite right I actually meant something more like this other thing.The beauty of back-and-forthLets say you want to use genAI to brainstorm the perfect marketing tagline for a campaign. Youd start by rambling about your project, or maybe just speaking a shorter prompt. Ask for a bunch of rough ideas so you can start contemplating and take it from there.But then, critically, you keep going. You say you like a few ideas in particular and want to go more in that direction. You get some more possibilities back. You keep going, on and on Well, I like the third one, but I think it needs more of [something], and the sixth one is all right but [something else]. Keep talking, postulating, refining, following paths of concepts to something that feels more right to you.If the tool doesnt seem to be on the right wavelength, dont get frustrated and back out. Tell it: No, you dont understand. This is for a major clothing company. I need it to sound professional but also catch peoples eyes. Thats why your suggestions are all too much.In a similar way to how the long stream-of-consciousness ramble lays a lot of context to push genAI in a useful direction this back-and-forth lays a lot of context as groundwork. Your entire conversation until that point forms the scaffolding of the conversation and affects the future responses in the thread. As you keep adding onto and continuing the conversation, you can make it more attuned to what youre looking for.Crucially, genAI is not making decisions. You are making all the decisions. You are exercising the taste. You can push it in this or that direction to get ideas. If it lands on something you disagree with, you can push back: No, thats not right at all. We really got off track. How about?Is this silly? Well, brainstorming doesnt normally mean sitting in an empty room meditating while staring at paint drying. It often means searching Google, seeing what other people say, poking around for inspiration. This can be similar but faster.Maybe you still use Google for brainstorming sometimes or go for a walk and be alone with your thoughts! Thats fine, too. GenAI is meant to be another tool in your toolbox. It isnt meant to be the end-all answer.The bigger AI pictureTo be clear: Im not here to sell you on the idea of embracing genAI. Im here to tell you that companies peddling these tools right now are selling you the wrong thing. The way they talk about the technology is not how you should use it. Its no wonder so many smart people are bouncing off it and being rightfully critical of what were being sold.GenAI should not be a replacement for thinking. More than anything, it is a tool for exploring concepts and the connections between them. You can use it to write a better email. You can use it to put together a marketing plan. It will do things you dont expect, and thats the point.Yes, it might hallucinate and make things up. (Thats why you need to keep your brain engaged.) You might want to just opt out. You might decided to keep plugging away looking for answers. Just remember: If youre using genAI, try to use it to be more human, not less. That will help you write better emails and accomplish much more beyond that.Lets stay in touch! Sign up for my free Windows Intelligence newsletter today. Ill send you three new things to try each Friday.