AI: Collaboration, Creativity, and Strategic Budgeting

Using AI in Collaboration

I recently completed the course Collaborative AI with Simon Powers, a four-week exploration of how AI tools can be used in teams — not just by individuals. While many organizations are adopting AI to boost individual efficiency, we are still in the early stages of learning how to use it collaboratively to improve complex business processes.

This question — how do we integrate AI into teamwork, not just solo tasks — is what I am interested in exploring. AI has the potential to facilitate decision-making in businesses, but only if it strengthens collaboration rather than replacing it.

My particular interest is how AI tools might support strategic planning and budgeting, where decisions must balance strategy, resources, and organizational and human priorities. What opportunities exist — and what are the risks?

One key insight from the course was that the fundamentals of successful business processes and creative problem solving also apply to AI collaboration. These include:

• Building a supportive, trusting environment

• Cultivating openness and curiosity as a team

• Establishing protocols so all voices are heard

• Knowing when to diverge and when to converge

• Defining decision-making roles clearly

AI is a powerful tool. But, like any tool, its impact depends on how it is used. In a team setting, misuse can lead to risks such as distrust, misdirection, or groupthink.

Using AI in Strategic Planning and Budgeting

For the past eight years, I have been developing a model I call Strategic Budgeting — an approach that integrates strategic planning and budgeting through creative problem solving (CPS). This process ensures that strategy drives resource allocation, and budgets accurately reflect organizational needs.

The strategic budgeting model includes six phases, aligned with CPS:

Strategic Planning

1.     Clarify the problem (ensure that the correct problem is identified)

2.    Generate ideas (identify a wide range of ideas)

3.    Develop solutions (refine and select viable ideas)

Budgeting

4.    Plan implementation (determine timeframe of actions and required resources)

5.    Create budget (allocate financial resources effectively and accurately)

6.    Implement and evaluate (execute and assess strategies and budgets throughout)

I see the potential for the use of AI in each of these phases, but these come with opportunities and risks.

1. Clarify the Problem

• AI Role: Synthesizer — AI can analyze past budgets, stakeholder feedback, and performance reports to identify recurring issues and opportunities.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Guard against premature problem definition. The team should discuss and question AI information and not accept it at face value.

• Risk: AI bias may frame the problem scope too narrowly, excluding important human, organizational, or contextual concerns.

Example: AI may highlight that an agency’s travel costs rose 20% over three years. The facilitator and the team explore why this has occurred — for example, mission needs, policy changes, or inefficiencies — before deciding whether travel is a problem.

2. Generate Ideas

• AI Role: Divergence Booster — AI can generate alternative strategies and explore “wild” what-if scenarios.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Establish protocols to ensure human ideas come first, then invite AI to expand and analyze these.

• Risk: Without “people” first protocols, teams may over-rely on AI, limiting the team’s creative work.

Example: If the team is generating information through the use of prompts in an AI tool, it is important that the team establish a protocol to ensure that the team member typing in the prompts doesn’t have sole control.  This can be accomplished by having the “prompter” share their screen or by giving the team the opportunity to agree on the prompts that will be used in the AI tool.

3. Develop Solutions

• AI Role: Pattern Finder & Convergence Support — AI can be used to clusters ideas, drafts pros/cons lists, and model financial trade-offs between strategies.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Lead convergence – the team should own evaluation, ensuring choices align with strategy and values.

• Risk: If AI dominates convergence, or if analysis is accepted without careful review, decision ownership weakens and stakeholder buy-in suffers.

Example:  After the team has narrowed options, a strong prompt is: “What have we missed?” AI’s response can help uncover overlooked considerations and deepen evaluation.

4. Plan Implementation

• AI Role: Planner — AI can propose timelines, tasks, and highlight risks like funding delays or compliance requirements.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Ensure accountability and balance efficiency with human considerations such as culture, politics, change management, and acceptance of new programs or ideas.

• Risk: AI may miss political, cultural, or organizational nuances.

5. Create the Budget

• AI Role: Resource Optimizer — AI can run allocation scenarios based on variants such as timing of implementation and impact of barriers, identify cost efficiencies, and flag constraints.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Ensure allocations reflect organizational values, supports the organization’s strategies and priorities, and address long-term sustainability.

• Risk: Over-optimization may sacrifice flexibility or mission goals.

6. Implement & Evaluate

• AI Role: Evaluator — AI can track spending, compare outcomes to benchmarks, and detect early warning signals.

• Facilitator/Team Role: Lead reflective learning - use AI metrics as inputs for evaluation discussions, not as verdicts. Keep qualitative results and stakeholder perspectives central.

• Risk: Over-reliance on AI metrics may undervalue qualitative results, stakeholder perspectives, or human impact.

Conclusion

Ethics and Governance: Guardrails for AI in Teams

To use AI responsibly in the strategic budget process, teams must address several key governance questions:

• Transparency: Does the team understand how AI generated its analysis/ recommendations and have these been thoroughly vetted by the team?

• Accountability: Who makes the final decision?

• Data quality: Is AI analyzing valid, complete, and relevant data?

Without these guardrails, AI may inadvertently reinforce flawed assumptions or produce a strategic plan or budget that lack credibility or reflect the organization's priorities.

Human Value and Creativity

While AI can accelerate analysis, humans bring creativity, values, and context that AI cannot replicate. Facilitators can play a crucial role here: they can safeguard trust, ensure protocols are followed, and keep the focus on people. When done well, AI doesn’t replace human insight — it expands the team’s capacity to imagine, connect, and innovate.

AI has the potential to accelerate every phase of the strategic budgeting process — acting as a synthesizer, booster, planner, or evaluator. Yet its effectiveness depends on thoughtful facilitation, clear protocols, and strong governance.

Ultimately, businesses/teams — not AI — must retain ownership of decisions, ensuring strategies and budgets reflect both organizational goals and human priorities. When this balance is achieved, budgets become more than numbers: they embody strategy, values, and purpose.

What’s Your Take? 

As I mentioned, I am just beginning my journey in exploring the use of AI in collaborative situations, particularly in strategic planning and budgeting processes.  I am interested in the discussion and welcome hearing your thoughts and experiences with using AI in a collaboration.

Share your thoughts in the comments below or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, The Creativity Bridge Builder, for exclusive insights and tools delivered straight to your inbox.  Subscribe here.