How entrepreneurs integrate GenAI into their thinking while remaining critical of the technology

For many entrepreneurs, generative artificial intelligence has become much more than a tool for writing text or finding information. It functions as a thinking partner that helps generate ideas, solve issues, and work through complex challenges. At the same time, their relationship with the technology appears paradoxical. Entrepreneurs use GenAI for many tasks, but many of them do not fully trust its outputs.

This article is based on a master’s thesis from Copenhagen Business School, exploring how student entrepreneurs engage with GenAI while building their startups. The study draws upon 17 qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs and mentors from Danish university incubators. The data was collected in collaboration as part of a broader research project at Aarhus University led by Associate Professor Shuang L. Frost.

Beyond Efficiency
Much of the public conversation and current research on GenAI focuses on productivity and efficiency. While entrepreneurs use GenAI for tasks such as writing, coding, research, and market analysis, the interviews suggest that its role extends far beyond this.

Entrepreneurs also use GenAI for brainstorming, sparring, and working through problems, often engaging in an ongoing dialogue with the technology as a close partner. Rather than simply providing answers, GenAI has become an active participant in their thinking. One entrepreneur in the study describes the technology as “a mix of a co-founder and a personal assistant” while another explains: “I’m talking as it’s like a person, but I know it’s not a person”. Their descriptions show that GenAI acts more as a thinking partner in their practices than solely a tool.

However, some entrepreneurs insist on framing the technology as “just a tool”, highlighting the paradox between their perception and their use of AI. This suggests that entrepreneurs’ actual relationship with GenAI often goes beyond how they consciously describe the technology. While they may call it a tool, their behavior instead resembles a collaboration with a thinking partner.

A Nuanced Relationship
Although GenAI has become deeply integrated into many startup workflows, entrepreneurs’ relationship with the technology is not defined by blind trust. Instead, the interviews reveal a more nuanced picture. Many entrepreneurs expressed mixed feelings about GenAI. They appreciate its capabilities while remaining aware of its limitations. As one entrepreneur explains: “I think you can use it for anything, but I wouldn’t make it a decision maker”. Several of the entrepreneurs emphasize that while GenAI can support their decision-making, it would never make important strategic decisions for their ventures.

Some entrepreneurs worry about inaccurate answers and AI hallucinations, while others are concerned that relying too heavily on GenAI could weaken their own creativity and own development as entrepreneurs. One entrepreneur describes how he uses GenAI for sparring: “It’s my thoughts and my creativity, but it’s not my fingers that are pressing the keyboard”. While he uses GenAI for many tasks, he is aware of how the technology is affecting him: “I don’t want it to, like, completely [take over] my thinking in a sense”.

As a result, entrepreneurs develop a range of strategies for using GenAI critically. They verify information, compare views from other sources such as mentors, and use the technology primarily as a thinking partner rather than as an unquestionable authority. Their relationship with GenAI is therefore defined by neither complete trust nor complete skepticism. Instead, it is characterized by an ongoing balance between leveraging the technology’s strengths while managing its limitations.

Always Available Sparring Partner
Building a startup is often an exciting, but possibly lonely, process for the entrepreneurs. Access to mentors, co-founders, and experienced advisors is valuable, but not always available during the earliest stages of entrepreneurship. For many entrepreneurs, GenAI fills part of this gap, because unlike humans, it is always available. Entrepreneurs describe keeping for example ChatGPT open throughout the workday and returning to it repeatedly during the day for various tasks. One entrepreneur says: “In work life I use it every day. Literally it is always open, like every second, constantly open”.

Many entrepreneurs explain they use it as their main tool: “I use it for almost everything. I don’t go to Google anymore, I just go to ChatGPT if I need to know something”. Its availability allows entrepreneurs to receive feedback, brainstorm, and refine their thinking, whenever new challenges arise. While the technology supports their cognitive work, and many see it as a supportive partner, mentors in the incubators suggest that it does not replace the human side of support. “What I come with is experience, right? And what AI doesn’t have is experience. There’s a huge difference between facts and experience”. They emphasize that experience, judgement, and emotional support are human contributions that GenAI cannot provide.

Mentors also express concern that entrepreneurs rely too heavily on GenAI despite being aware of its limitations. As one mentor explains: “They already know that ChatGPT is hallucinating. They know it. They’re smart, but they still do it.” Although the entrepreneurs describe using various strategies to verify GenAI’s outputs, the mentors argue that these efforts are not always sufficiently critical. They also observe that GenAI may make entrepreneurs less inclined to seek advice from others, a pattern that several entrepreneurs acknowledge themselves.

Rethinking the Role of GenAI
This study shows that GenAI is doing more than helping entrepreneurs work faster. It is reshaping how they think, solve problems, and develop their new ventures. This raises important questions for universities, incubators, and organizations that support entrepreneurship. How can entrepreneurs benefit from GenAI without becoming overly reliant on it? How can they maintain critical thinking, creativity, and human connections while incorporating a technology that has already become part of their everyday thinking?

Info on thesis background

Based on interviews with 17 participants – 15 entrepreneurs
(6 women, 9 men) and two mentors (one woman, one man)
Part of a broader Aarhus University research project
Research method consisted of qualitative interviews lasting 20-45 minutes
Analyzed with Extended Mind Theory (Clark and Chalmers, 1998)
– arguing that the external environment can be part of the cognition given certain circumstances.
Analyzed with Effectuation Theory (Sarasvathy, 2001) – explaining how and why entrepreneurs work in the uncertain entrepreneurial environment.