Anthropic product executive Dianne Penn says artificial intelligence has become part of her management toolkit.

Penn said on an episode of "Lenny's Podcast" released Sunday that Anthropic's flagship AI model, Claude, has helped her to become a more effective manager and that she has shared her approach with fellow managers at the company.

"That's actually a thing that I've been sharing more with our managers, of okay, how do you actually use Claude to make you a better coach, because it's hard sometimes to find the right perfect words, and the models have a lot of perfect and right words," said Penn.

Penn, who has served as Anthropic's head of product management for research and labs since 2023, said she has encouraged team members to use AI to have "better conversations with each other" and "be better managers."

"I don't think it's necessarily just about raising the IQ of like experiences we build, but also I used it a lot and actually like prepping for how to have better conversations in the moment during like crucial conversations," she said.

Penn told podcast host Lenny Rachitsky that she loves the book, "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High," and has created a custom Claude "skill" inspired by its lessons to help her prepare for certain workplace conversations.

"I actually have a skill that helps me figure out — am I going in the right level of detail given the situation at hand, and actually helping me be a better manager and better supporter for the team," she said.

Penn described her use of Claude in these scenarios as "almost like individualized personalized coaching."

"There are times where I end up not using suggestions from Claude. But it actually ends up being very helpful for just coming up and brainstorming — am I thinking about reactions in the right way? How do I actually go a bit deeper faster, build trust faster, be more direct?" Penn said.

Still, Penn said she doesn't rely on Claude to do her thinking for her. Instead, she uses it to refine ideas after first forming her own point of view.

Penn said AI shouldn't simply reinforce what a user already believes. Instead, she argued that it should function more as a "thinking partner."

"What you don't want is like an AI that just agrees with you," Penn said. "What you want is this technology to actually augment and grow and like get to a better outcome. And so sometimes it's having Claude push back makes me better."

"Like a co-worker, I want somebody to push back when my ideas are not fully formed," Penn said.

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Natalie Musumeci

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Natalie is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Business News team.She was previously on BI's Legal Affairs team where she covered major cases out of state and federal court, as well as bankruptcy. Her coverage often focused on stories at the intersection of law, business, politics and technology. Natalie has covered Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases, the wave of lawsuits against the second Trump administration, the indictment and criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the legal battles facing Elon Musk and his companies. Natalie came to Business Insider in June 2021 as a breaking news reporter, focusing on the most interesting angles around the trending news of the day. Natalie largely drove BI’s coverage around the fatal “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin and the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.Prior to joining BI, Natalie worked for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and The Brooklyn Paper. She has an extensive background covering crime and courts. During her more than 12-year journalism career, she did a stint covering the police beat out of the headquarters for the New York Police Department. Natalie, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a journalism degree. Popular articles

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