Brainstorming is one of the easiest ways to put Claude to work. People tend to stall because they judge ideas the moment they think of them, but you can ask an AI to "hold judgment and just generate a lot." The key is separating diverging from converging.
Why AI brainstorming works
People generate fewer ideas because they immediately think "that will not work." You can tell an AI to stop evaluating and quickly produce many candidates, and it is easy to try again from different angles. That makes it strong at the diverge stage.
Diverge: generate many
- State a quantity — ask for a number, like "20 different approaches."
- Provide conditions — target, budget, tone; context yields more usable candidates.
- Hold judgment — say "do not evaluate at this stage, just list them."
Converge: narrow down
- Give criteria — "top 3 by novelty and feasibility."
- Ask for grouping — clustering similar ideas reveals the bigger picture.
- Develop — turn the chosen ideas into concrete plans.
Shift the perspective and retry
The same topic yields new ideas when you change the angle. Add frames like "as someone who disagrees," "if the budget were one-tenth," or "from a 10-year view," then ask again.
Caveats
AI ideas are a starting point, not a conclusion. Facts, feasibility, and legal or ethical concerns must be verified separately by a person. A plausible-looking suggestion may have no basis, so confirm before acting on important decisions.
Just separating diverge from converge changes results dramatically. For more, see the official Anthropic documentation.