Andrew Ng says he brainstorms work ideas by talking to AI in voice mode while driving.
The Google Brain founder said at the Masters of Scale Summit 2025 in October that he uses AI as a “brainstorming companion much more than even my friends know.”
“When I’m driving, I talk to AI quite a lot,” he said in the discussion, which was published Wednesday.
Ng said he rarely sticks to a single chatbot. To brainstorm effectively, he rotates across different models and leans into their contrasting strengths. For coding, he prefers tools like Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex.
He added that staying longer in a conversation with the model yields a better response.
“AI is very smart, but getting context in is difficult,” Ng said. “A lot of it is not, ‘Let me say some stuff, then give me ideas.'”
Rather, it’s about engaging in an “extended conversation” with the model: discussing ideas and providing feedback.
Ng said he would “just get work done while driving.” Once he reaches his destination, he asks the AI to summarize their exchange and forward it to his team.
Earlier this year, Ng said that there are moments when “lazy prompting” — giving the AI minimal context or instructions — can actually be a more efficient approach.
“It’s sometimes faster to be lazy and dash off a quick, imprecise prompt and see what happens,” Ng said on X in April. “Most LLMs are smart enough to figure out that you want them to help understand and propose fixes, so you don’t need to explicitly tell them.”
“We add details to the prompt only when they are needed,” he added.
How leaders are using AI at work
A growing number of executives have shared about how they are using AI and weaving it into their day-to-day workflow.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in June that he has been using AI to casually vibe code and build web apps.
“It’s exciting to see how casually you can do it now,” Pichai said. “Compared to the early days of coding, things have come a long way.”
Box CEO Aaron Levie told Business Insider in a September report that he uses a mix of AI tools depending on the task. He turns to ChatGPT or Perplexity for research, switches to Cursor when he needs quick prototypes of new product features, and uses Box AI when he’s working directly with data.
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel told Business Insider in the same report that he has used AI to refine his public speaking skills. Fogel said he uploaded recordings of his keynote speeches to the models, and the LLM provides specific feedback, including flagging distracting hand movements.
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