“People Helping People” Problem Solving: How do we Elevate Achievement Levels Wisely and Safely in a GEN AI Age?

by admin · Published November 12, 2025 · Updated November 12, 2025

Over the past 10 years, the Caribbean STEM Coaching Club has been a trusted space for families to tap into the collective expertise and lived experiences of our members. Through open conversations and shared insights, we help each other navigate challenges and discover new opportunities in Parenting, Learning, Careers, and Family Finances.

On Wednesday, 5 November, we gathered once more to explore how to elevate achievement levels at school and at work safely and wisely in a GEN AI age.

What specific action(s) most helped us to enhance our performance at work

Rationing my phone use so slept better and functioned better.
Recruiting good people.
Strategic use of GENAI helped enormously.
Listening before acting.
Doing some more things without technology and taking some time to do nothing has helped me to be more productive when I do use it.
Dedicating time to building rapport with key team members.
Writing to help my thinking (even Sam Altman admitted he needed to write to help him think!).
Building networks.
Using GEN AI to help offset my dyslexia reading speed.
Hearing different views.
Being more discerning in assessing information.

How is GEN AI helping us at work?

Brainstorming, and organising thoughts.
By learning more about things I did not know about, re industries and connecting varied ideas for new information.
First drafts of documents and Board papers.
GEN AI has helped me to brainstorm ideas.
GENAI is great as an editor and proof-reader.
It helps me to access relevant information faster than with Google.
No, GEN AI is not helping as litigants in person are using it to prepare and present tribunal cases, and that does not make for the best presentation of a case. On a positive, it has helped me prepare talks for Church.
Acting as a peer reviewer at scale to iterate feedback faster.
Doing research.

What should we be doing to best leverage AI in our lives?

Everyone should be properly trained through a high-quality AI course. Recent research from the LSE suggests that those who are trained achieve greater productivity gains than those who use AI but have not been trained. Also, lot of Tech companies are trying to make a lot of money convincing a lot of people that they need to know more, do more and keep up with the very fast pace of change. A high-quality AI course helps to cut through the noise and focus on what we really need to know and how we really need to think. It helps us not waste time and energy on low value, unproductive and also exhausting and eroding activities.
Use AI to help us work smarter and free up time to have more impact.
Develop my own personal AI plan for what I want to use it for
I think that a lot of innovation is going to come out of the emerging markets especially Africa. GEN AI might help Africa to leapfrog like they did with phones – provided of course erosion through inappropriate use and overuse is avoided.
Minimise reliance on initial results and seek to validate especially in a work context otherwise you run the risk of not being able to respond to challenges.
It could help us to create and develop new businesses for our communities.
It is important to seek out avenues to be trained and understand how it can be used most effectively. The free Coursera short course “AI for Everyone” is a great introduction.
AI cannot be ignored. It is key to productivity for all of us and should be used responsibly. It is key to get that message across to our children as well as politicians and the tech companies. Sadly, we see already so much negativity targeting or mocking/imitating black people.

What are we doing to keep our critical thinking, problem solving, and judgement sharp?

Reading books
I make sure I always write first and then ask AI to edit or refine.
Writing in long hand rather than typing.
Lots of face to face discussions with people exchanging ideas etc.
I ask the AI to critique what I write – give counter arguments.
We need to keep thinking critically. Going to the sources and fact checking. Reading from a diverse range of sources (left/right etc…). This then supplements engaging with the technology almost daily both personally as well as professionally.
Being old school, I like to double check information, challenge it and in terms of writing, I read back my work in a critical way to ensure it is sharp.
Going to the theatre often – seeing shows like “The Harder they come”!
Evaluate and validate all outputs.
Creative writing, journaling, other creative pursuits. learning new and different things, silence
Get time doing nothing but just thinking.
Make sure I am always handwriting – writing helps with thinking. Read real books
It matters how you use AI. If you use it to metaphorically “do your maths homework”, you’ll get lazy. If you use it to “help me understand how to work this out” and then “why is it like that”…then you’re learning and sharpening the knife. You can use it as a 3rd party to outsource to or as a teacher/mentor to help you learn. I prefer the latter.
Hearing views which are different to mine.
Read widely from original authors and check sources.

How do we do the due diligence to protect against AI hallucinations?

Have a challenging mindset.
Active engagement rather than passive acceptance.
Be rigorous in fact checking
Use common sense
Getting 3 reliable sources – e.g. through a Google. Search for information given
I generally use AI for topics I already have a working knowledge of or use it to help me ask the right questions of others. I never use it as the sole source.
I believe AI works best in areas I already have a deep understanding of. I am then equipped to use my judgement to evaluate outputs. I am loathe to use it in areas I know little about.
Carefully read what the AI gives back to you. Keep thinking. Keep asking “is this really what I’m trying to say?” If I put this in front of someone important to me, will they challenge me on it? Is this in the tone and style in which I like to write?
It matters how you prompt – no open-ended questions. Start by asking the AI to take on the role of an expert in the area. Give a lot of context. If you know reliable sources of information or reports, ask the AI to only draw from these sources
Don’t read the AI top line alone.
Ask AI if it’s producing hallucinations.
Ask the AI to suggest that best prompt that you can use to avoid hallucinations.
Verification prompts are very important.
Ask the AI to say that it does not know if it is not sure of the facts.

How do we protect our data?

Be aware. Read the emerging thinking : The Age of Extraction
Be aware. Edtech is a risk to our children’s data and their privacy. And there is no clear evidence that it is actually effective for their learning!
Remember – anything you put out there can be used!
Encrypt
Turn off the button which should be in all LLMs to say that you do not want to share your information with third parties.

Other “ top tips” ?

I had excellent training from the Law Society of Ireland.
Learnt as I’ve gone along. I would say the best thing is to practice different prompts and to follow up and refine responses. Ensuring you correct AI where it admits in any errors to ensure that the anomaly doesn’t carry further into the work or thread.
Where AI training s concerned, I think Coursera’s AI for Everyone is a great place to start. And it is free. But we will all need more. I don’t think it is one size fits all. I think you should ask around for recommendations and go to your professional body or trade association and find out which AI skills training they recommend.
Some of my colleagues have taken prompt engineering courses.
Use CoPilot for executives training programme.
Things change very quickly so dig deep into your main area of expertise and just experiment with the different platforms to see how they can augment value.
Being an expert in an industry is an advantage – they use experts to train the AI.

What actions have helped our children raise achievement levels ?

Gen AI has empowered me to help my children with homework – I ask it to help explain more difficult concepts in ways that they can understand.
I don’t let AI around my daughter. lol. But generally, I try to expose her to as many child-appropriate things in the world.
My son went from using just Google to now asking questions of AI
Reading
Maths
Being more aware of their academics.
I have younger children – I think AI gives us an additional level of insight and knowledge. One of my daughters is more interested in generating images! But is learning about prompts.
Gen Ai can generate practice questions to help prepare for exams.
Tools like Notebook LM can create podcasts that you can discuss with and engage with – a little like a study group. This sort of more active learning could increase learning retention rates.
I try to teach my son that the quality of output from AI depends on the quality of the questions we ask.
As young people learn that it is risky to trust one just one source, they become better challengers and thinkers when having to compare outputs from different sources and then use forms of validation – I hope!
GEN AI can critique essays and give counterarguments for everything you write.
It is pretty good at brainstorming creative ideas.
Helps with revising and practicing exams based on requirements.
Scepticism is a must when dealing with AI or any source. It is no different to conventional learning and assessing sources. Also, use AI for improving grammar and asking if there is anything material missing which can support better quality work.
You can give it research data and ask it for ideas for presenting the data.

The wisdom of using AI for counselling?

Is it safe? Read this Psychology Today article advising parents on how to help their teenagers navigate AI safely.
The NHS has safe evidence informed apps designed to support mental health .
NHS urges young people not to use ‘harmful’ AI chatbots as therapist | The Independent
It is safer to rely on AI developed or approved by the NHS.

What do we need more “People Helping People” discussions on?

The safe and wise use of EdTech. What are the data protection and privacy risks. How effective is Edtech?
The fundamentals of Learning How to Learn (we need to discuss this regularly).
Is the AI bubble going to burst? What will this mean for the economy? What will this mean for our investments?
New and emerging opportunities in the UK Government’s industrial strategy
Agentic AI and custom GPTs. Can we start building our own to meet needs in underserved communities? What are the gaps out there that may be good business opportunities for us?
What are our legal rights where AI is concerned and how can we enforce them?
Update on Pensions including the GENZ/Alpha Pensions review.