By: Gesche Haas, Founder & CEO of Dreamers & Doers, A curated community and PR Hype Machine™ for extraordinary women entrepreneurs.
As AI continues to evolve, so does the way founders are using it, not just to keep up, but to get ahead. The most impactful applications aren’t always the most obvious ones, and businesses that have found ways to integrate automated tools into the fabric of their very decision-making are already feeling the strategic advantage as those plans come to fruition.
In this round-up, Dreamers & Doers members reveal the unexpected ways they’re using AI to weigh and make hard choices on their teams and in their companies. Their insights offer a fresh perspective on how founders can move beyond the basics and tap into AI as a true growth partner.
AI for Pressure-Testing
If there’s one thing a founder really doesn’t need in the room when it’s time to make a tough call, it’s a person or tool who turns the conversation into an echo chamber. While there’s real short-term satisfaction in hearing unanimous agreement to your ideas, it rarely yields the best result. Knowing this, founders are using AI to challenge their thinking.
“I use AI before I make big decisions; not after,” says Nicole Leon, founder of L Leon Virtual Assistance LLC. “I’ll talk the decision through and ask it to poke holes in my thinking so I’m not making rushed choices. It’s helped me tighten scopes, protect my margins, and make calculated decisions.”
Similarly, Clara Ma likes to think of AI tools as a “second brain,” supporting her in high-stakes moments in her role as founder and CEO of Ask a Chief of Staff. Ma is especially likely to turn to her preferred platforms, AI note-taker Granola and Claude, after meetings, when she uses them to synthesize conversation and send immediate follow-ups. Outside of meetings, she regularly feeds Claude context from emails, calls, and books she’s read.
“When I’m making a decision, I’m drawing on the full picture of my business, not just what happens to be top of mind,” Ma says. “The shift has been real: faster decisions, near-zero follow-up lag, and the mental clarity that comes from not having to hold everything in my head.”
Chapter tOO founder and CEO Charmaine Green-Forde leans on AI in the early phases of designing frameworks and products.
“I use AI to synthesize research and pressure-test different structural approaches before anything becomes part of my methodology,” she says. “What used to take weeks of digging and iteration now happens in a few focused sessions, accelerating how quickly ideas turn into launch-ready intellectual property.”
AI for Decoding Patterns Humans Miss
At its most basic level, AI has become a go-to resource for anyone, founder or not, seeking insight or information. Even the most unwieldy of inputs can be whittled down gracefully with a little help from artificial intelligence.
Savvy founders are taking it a step further, though, moving past straightforward insights and using AI instead to extract meaning. With their brilliant programming, these tools can easily identify patterns or trends that would be nearly impossible for the naked human eye to identify. Leadership and communications strategist Monica Rivera is glad to offer her expert endorsement for AI in this kind of role.
“I use AI to analyze patterns in executive language across earnings calls, leadership announcements, and promotion narratives to reverse-engineer how authority is communicated,” Rivera says of the part this technology plays in her work at YOU WANNA DO WHAT?! “I embed those insights directly into my workshop positioning and proposal language so that corporate buyers see immediate alignment with how they evaluate leadership internally.”
For Jessica Sikora, founder and executive director of Superbands, pattern recognition is made better and easier thanks to AI, which analyzes fan submissions for common themes, language, and moments of connection.
“This insight now informs everything from our campaigns to brand partnership pitches, helping us show companies the measurable cultural impact of fandom,” Sikora says.
By taking qualitative information like the feedback received by Rivera, Sikora, and their teams and translating it into measurable impact and strategic narratives, artificial intelligence tools help founders drive revenue and influence.
AI as Embedded Strategist
While AI can clearly play a starring role in the final stages of a decision-making or strategy session, it also has its place at other stops along the way. At Quimby Digital, founder Ashley Rector collaborated with her team on a custom Claude environment trained on the agency’s frameworks, historical campaign performance, and brand voice libraries. Doing so has enabled AI to develop campaign ideas, briefs, and engagement responses even before the team steps in.
“It’s made our strategy sharper and our content more intentional because every idea is informed by real performance data,” Rector says. “One thing I think founders underestimate is how powerful AI becomes when it’s trained on your internal processes and historical data.”
Along with her team at Arquia, Andrea Garcia has moved from using siloed AI tools to creating a three-pillar AI ecosystem: engineering and optimizing their website, launching a custom shopping agent, and building an internal AI co-founder to review live data.
“By creating this ecosystem, we have accelerated our strategic decision-making because we have eliminated manual reporting and at the same time positioned ourselves to capture high-intent buyers directly through conversational search before they ever reach a traditional search engine,” Garcia says.
These real case studies point to something important. Using AI effectively isn’t just about the tools themselves, but about integrating them into how strategy itself is built.
AI for Turning Noise Into Focus
Day to day, AI tools are uniquely qualified to reduce cognitive overload and make it easier to effectively prioritize. When every day looks like this for founders, leaders, and other decision-makers, focus becomes more attainable. Marketing strategist Julie Zhu has seen the impacts firsthand.
“I often end the day with a long list of notes, ideas, and priorities, and I use AI to help me organize them into a clearer plan for the next day or week,” she says. “It has helped me focus on what matters most and spend less time feeling scattered.”
Speaking of paying off, some founders are seeing AI as a powerful engine for sharper financial and operational decisions. As founder and CEO of BotQueen, Caitlen Macias has used Claude to run pricing analyses, showing her exactly which services drive revenue and which ones drain her time.
“The founders winning right now aren’t guessing,” Macias says. “They’re letting AI advise them exactly where to focus.”
The days of making decisions based on intuition are over. With AI as a tool for strategic planning and decision-making, data can inform just about everything.
All individuals featured in this article are members of Dreamers & Doers, a curated community and PR platform for women entrepreneurs and leaders.
