In 2013, when Meredith O’Connor was 16, the music video for her debut single was made “Celebrity” went viral. She then channeled her own fame into advocating for her children’s mental health: as a hyperactive child she was often bullied, O’Connor says, and when her music career gave her a platform, she was keen to use it to stand up for other victims.
“I knew my fan base was younger, but I didn’t know how many people resonated with mental health issues,” she says. “I realized that there are millions of gifted people who are marginalized, and that’s when I really wanted to get into mental health research.”
Since blowing up YouTube over a decade ago, O’Connor has earned a master’s degree in mental health counseling and co-founded Mental Health Counseling Services of Manhattan in 2024. Working closely with public schools, O’Connor said she was struck by the many ways standardized testing disadvantages neurodivergent students. “That observation led me to speak directly with legal, consulting, and business leaders about how hiring and evaluation systems might evolve in an AI economy.”
O’Connor explains that the more she spoke to AmLaw 20 companies and Fortune 500 executives, the more she realized that the types of skills they wanted from graduates were not the skills measured and rewarded on standardized tests. This is especially true for people like those who suffer from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who have many natural benefits but often have difficulty remembering and maintaining focus.
“Before the age of 23, the ADHD brain is gifted at many things. But one of the areas of slower development is executive function,” she says, explaining that the impairment affects short-term memory, concentration and impulse control. ‘Against time [those with ADHD] When you’re 18, you’ve taken all those aptitude tests that study parts of the brain that haven’t developed yet.”
However, those with ADHD often excel in areas such as abstract thinking, creative problem solving, resilience and empathy – all of which are increasingly valued by employers in the age of artificial intelligence.
“He’s better than humans at many of the tasks that neurodivergent people struggle with,” O’Connor says. “Skills that match entrepreneurship, skills that match communication, skills that match problem solving – these are the things that AI cannot yet do better than humans.”
People with ADHD often exhibit certain natural strengths and challenges. By sheer coincidence, many of the challenges can now be solved with the help of AI tools. And at the same time, many of the benefits of ADHD – such as creative problem solving, abstract thinking and intuition – are seen as increasingly valuable in an AI-enabled world.
AI excels where ADHDers often fall short
People with ADHD often struggle with routine processes, time management, and processing large amounts of information. But AI tools are proving effective in helping to bridge these gaps.
For example, instead of sitting still and paying attention for long periods of time during an academic lecture or meeting, AI software can now capture that information, transcribe it, and highlight key points in a more compressed format.
“Traditional environments aren’t designed for them; they’re designed for the neurotypical. And I think AI can help level the playing field,” says Rebecca Koniahgari, the founder of Bryge AI, a tool that helps neurotypical people better communicate with ADHDers (or “bridge the gap,” the inspiration for the product’s name).
The New York-based engineer says she developed the product to better communicate with colleagues and friends who have been diagnosed with the condition. Rather than asking people with ADHD to adjust their communication style, Bryge AI is for people who “love, live, or work with” someone who has ADHD.
“I am neurotypical and the burden of communication always lies with the other person [with ADHD]so let us meet them halfway,” says Koniahgari.
The online app allows users to enter a message and then ‘translate’ it into a more ADHD-friendly structure that emphasizes clarity, conciseness and emotional intelligence, highlighting potential issues, such as language, that could cause anxiety, ambiguity or negative framing. After launching the prototype she developed at a hackathon event organized by AI coding platform Bolt, Koniahgari received a silver medal for Bryge AI at the 2025 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
Now Koniahgari says she wants to integrate the technology into other AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude AI, and eventually into workplace communications platforms like Slack, to make it even more accessible and widely available.
People with ADHD often excel where AI falls short
Just as technology can help fill the gaps that ADHDers struggle with most, ADHDers appear well positioned to fill the gaps that technology often struggles with, such as creative problem solving, out-of-the-box thinking, and adaptability.
According to a recent study conducted by researchers at Drexel University, people with ADHD tend to solve problems using insight instead of analytical skills. Instead of working through problems step by step, their brains often make unconscious connections that result in an “aha” moment of insight.
“We hypothesized that people with stronger ADHD symptoms would solve more of these puzzles with an a-ha moment, with insight, and that turned out to be true,” explains John Kounios, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Drexel University, and one of the paper’s co-authors.
“What was surprising – although it makes perfect sense in retrospect – is that the people who solved the most puzzles were the ones with the lowest levels of ADHD symptoms and [who were] highest in ADHD symptoms.”
The study asked participants a series of questions commonly used to screen for ADHD symptoms, and included only participants who had not been diagnosed with or were not taking medication for a cognitive disorder. Kounios explains that those who exhibit more ADHD symptoms excel at problem solving using insight, those with the fewest symptoms also tend to excel at analytical reasoning, while those in the middle are not particularly good at that either.
“The chatbots don’t do this kind of spontaneous cognition like humans do, so human creativity sets the agenda,” says Kounios. “What people with ADHD are good at is coming up with solutions to problems that no one knew they had.”
A team effort between neurotypical, neurodivergent and AI
However, Kounios cautions that, as with other technological tools, there is a fine line between assistance and distraction – and that AI can pose challenges for those who already struggle to maintain focus.
“It would require the person with ADHD to have the discipline to use chatbots [a productive] ” he says. “Sure, it can be a rabbit hole for people to fall into.”
That’s why Kounios believes people can best leverage their unique strengths and limit their natural challenges when they solve problems using the latest AI tools, together with teammates who think differently.
“There is research literature on the benefits of having diverse teams,” he says. “You want to have some people who are older and some people who are younger… men and women… all kinds of different people.” Kounios adds that similar research proves the same for neurodiversity.
“I think it’s also good to have a mix of cognitive profiles: some people will be more dispersed, less focused and perhaps more creative, along with people who are much more analytical, focused and systematic.”
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