Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic promise. It is now embedded in daily organisational life. Across healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and services, firms are using AI to improve efficiency and productivity. With the rapid rise of generative AI, this shift has accelerated. Systems can draft reports in seconds, recommend decisions, synthesise large volumes of data, and automate tasks that once required years of professional expertise.
These visible gains, however, come with a quieter cost: the gradual erosion of human cognition. AI has become a default coworker many rely on instinctively. As per a Microsoft and LinkedIn report, 75% of knowledge workers already use AI at work, and 90% of them say it saves time under pressure, boosts creativity, and allows focus on higher value tasks. Yet, as generative AI penetrates knowledge workflows, questions are emerging about its impact on critical thinking and cognitive practice.
Another study by the Centre for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability at SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich, involving 666 participants, found a correlation between increased AI usage and lower critical thinking scores. Early neuro cognitive evidence reinforces these concerns. An MIT Media Lab preprint using EEG data reported that during essay writing, the LLM assisted group exhibited the weakest brain connectivity, with cognitive abilities declining as reliance on external tools increased.
This is particularly worrying in creative work. The risk isn’t only doing less thinking—it is cognitive fixation. Initial AI suggestions often anchor thinking and become a ceiling rather than a starting point.
Increasingly, AI is doing the thinking even in areas where human judgment once mattered. Take something as routine as writing an email. Earlier, employees would frame arguments, choose words carefully, and refine drafts. Today, many simply describe the situation to an AI system and accept a polished response in seconds. The convenience is undeniable, but the cognitive effort that once shaped clarity and judgment has quietly receded.
This is the fundamental risk of convenience. When AI takes over core cognitive work—sense making, synthesis, evaluation, and judgment—it threatens the very capabilities that make human intelligence valuable. Offloading higher order thinking doesn’t just change how work is done; it changes how people think. Problem solving skills weaken without regular use. Learning becomes passive. Over time, workers fall out of practice.
Organisations often overlook this risk because AI delivers speed and visible improvements. But this view is shortsighted. As dependence grows, human judgment weakens, and workers become less effective when systems fail or conditions shift. Deloitte’s research echoes this concern, noting that while AI accelerates execution, it reduces opportunities for experiential learning unless work is intentionally redesigned.
This shift also affects accountability. As algorithmic recommendations dominate, humans may remain responsible on paper while quietly surrendering cognitive ownership of decisions. Researchers describe this as human agency decay. Even research from OpenAI suggests that prolonged reliance on conversational AI can reduce independent engagement with problems, especially when AI is treated as an authority rather than a tool.
This is not an argument against AI. Technology is central to the future of work and has already delivered enormous benefits. The concern is balance. Cognitive abilities require continuous exercise. When AI consistently performs demanding thinking tasks, people lose opportunities to engage deeply—often without realising it.The danger is not immediately reflected in productivity metrics. But over time, this silent erosion of cognition may cost organisations far more than it saves—optimising systems at the expense of human intelligence, which ultimately drives learning, innovation, and resilience.
For economies like India, where demographic advantage and human capability underpin long term competitiveness, the stakes are higher. If organisations rush to automate judgment instead of augmenting it, they risk weakening the cognitive depth that fuels adaptability, entrepreneurship, and growth. Policymakers, educators, and business leaders must pay attention not only to what AI accelerates, but also to what it quietly displaces. In the race to automate work, the bigger risk may be automating away the thinking that underpins resilience, innovation, and economic stability.
Vijaya Sunder M, Assistant Professor, Indian School of Business.Stuti Juyal, Post Graduate Programme in Management, Indian School of Business.
First Published: Mar 11, 2026, 12:11
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