Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arrived not as a distant concept, but as a working partner in every industry (from agriculture to retail, logistics to local community organisations). For regional and rural small business owners, AI presents an unprecedented opportunity to compete with big-city operators, automate repetitive work, and make smarter decisions faster. Yet, amid all the excitement, there’s a quieter, more human concern emerging, the potential erosion of critical thinking.  As AI begins to “think” for us, it’s easy to forget that judgment, intuition, and wisdom are still human qualities, and they matter more than ever.

AI will help level the playing field for regional businesses. For decades, regional business owners have battled with limited access to data, skilled staff, and urban-scale resources. AI has shifted that balance. Today, a farmer or regional tourism operator has the same access to powerful data tools as a multinational based in a city. Some of the positive applications AI can provide a business owner include:

• Smarter decision-making: AI can analyse market trends, weather data, soil conditions, customer preferences, and supply chain disruptions in real time. This allows business owners to make quicker and more informed decisions.
• Automation and efficiency: AI-driven tools can manage bookings, handle customer service queries, or even help with grant applications and compliance reporting, all tasks that consume valuable time for small teams.
• Marketing and storytelling: Tools like ChatGPT, Canva’s Magic Write, and Jasper help regional businesses craft marketing content, write proposals, or create social media posts that once required a marketing consultant.
• Precision agriculture: On farms, AI is already identifying pest infestations, monitoring livestock health, and predicting yield outcomes. This not only boosts productivity but also reduces waste and environmental impact.

These AI tools offer a way for small business owners to punch above their weight. But they also introduce a hidden danger, the temptation to allow technology to think instead of human think. This poses a huge risk for our next generation, who tend to believe AI is 100 per cent accurate, which is not the case. 

The risk if outsourcing thinking is real. Critical thinking (the ability to analyse, challenge assumptions, weigh alternatives, and make sound judgments) has always been the backbone of good business leadership. The risk of AI is not that it replaces jobs; it’s that it replaces thinking. When an owner or staff member asks AI for a business plan, a marketing post, or even a customer response, it’s easy to accept the output as fact. Yet AI cannot be relied upon to know anything, it predicts word patterns based on data, and that data may contain errors, bias, or outdated information.

Research from Stanford, Oxford, and MIT Universities have revealed that even the most advanced AI models produce factual inaccuracies up to 15–20 per cent of the time. In high-stakes decisions, such as financial management, safety protocols, or legal compliance, that’s an unacceptable margin for error. The deeper issue, however, is cultural. When teams use AI constantly, they can stop asking “why” questions. Our next generation (apprentices, junior staff, school leavers and university graduates entering the workforce for the first time), risk being in the habit of relying on technology for answers before they’ve developed the ability to think critically for themselves, or indeed fact check the answers they receive via AI.

Our next generation of workers will be the first generation in history that will need to grapple with developing their critical thinking skills, whilst navigating a world of data that has been generated by AI. If AI is introduced purely as a shortcut, staff will learn to delegate thinking to the machine. But if it’s introduced as a tool for inquiry (a starting point for conversation, analysis, and testing), then it can strengthen critical thinking skills. It is crucial business owners treat AI is a support act, not the decision-maker. 

Leading through the AI era. The best business leaders won’t be those who use AI the most, but those who use it wisely. Leadership in this new era means guiding teams to use technology with both curiosity and caution. Here are some practical steps business owners can take to use AI wisely:

• Treat AI as a co-pilot, not a captain. Use it to assist, not to decide. Ask it for options or summaries, but ensure final calls are made by humans who understand the context and consequences.
• Question everything. Encourage staff to verify AI outputs. If AI writes a policy or report, ask: “Does this sound like us?” or “What could be missing here?”
• Keep the human story at the centre. Customers and communities connect to authenticity. AI can mimic tone, but it can’t replicate lived experiences, empathy, or local storytelling, all of which are priceless in regional Australia.
• Build digital literacy, not dependence. Train your team on both how to use AI tools and how to spot its limitations. Understanding prompts, data sources, and verification practices will separate skilled operators from blind users.
• Use AI to free up time for higher thinking. The true productivity gain isn’t in writing faster emails, it’s in freeing leaders and staff to spend more time on strategy, customer care, and exploring innovation.
• Lead by example. Share openly with your team when you use AI, how you check its outputs, and what you’ve learned. Transparency builds trust and helps others learn through observation.

Refine, reframe, and reinsert local insight. Even the most advanced AI tools regularly “hallucinate” producing confident but incorrect information. That’s why human review must remain non-negotiable. If something looks too polished, too generic, or simply doesn’t fit your business’s tone of voice, it probably came straight from the algorithm. The owner’s job is to refine, reframe, and reinsert local insight.

Protecting the mindset that built regional business is a leadership role. When things go wrong on the farm or in the local community, people don’t call an app, they problem-solve! That mindset, born from necessity, is a competitive advantage in an AI-driven world. Whilst AI is here to stay, for regional business owners, it offers immense potential to reduce isolation, improve efficiency, and connect to new markets. But it also comes with a leadership responsibility: to ensure the next generation doesn’t lose the capacity to think deeply, question broadly, and act wisely.

Leadership Lesson

Critical thinking isn’t something to outsource; it’s something to exercise.
AI should be used to enhance that muscle, not replace it.
Use it to test ideas, challenge assumptions, or accelerate planning.
But keep the spirit of curiosity and inquiry alive.

Facta Non Verba – Deeds Not Words