How To Keep AI From Making Your Employees Stupid

Where I live in Bend, Oregon, the biggest challenge often used to be deciding which hiking trail to conquer. These days, a new, more existential question is emerging from the digital ether: For all its dazzling brilliance, is artificial intelligence (AI) making us, well, a little less brilliant?

A recent study, notably from MIT, has thrown a digital wrench into our collective AI honeymoon, suggesting that overuse of AI tools might actually be degrading our thinking capabilities. It’s the digital equivalent of using a GPS so much you forget how to read a map. Suddenly, your internal compass seems to be pointing vaguely toward “convenience” and not much else.

The Peril of Cognitive Offloading: Why AI Can Make Us Dumber

The allure of AI is undeniable. It drafts emails, summarizes lengthy reports, generates code snippets and even whips up images faster than you can say “neural network.” This unprecedented convenience, however, carries a subtle but potent risk.

The MIT study and anecdotal observations suggest that when we offload critical cognitive tasks entirely to AI, our own muscles for those tasks begin to atrophy. Why fact-check if the AI “knows”? Why brainstorm if AI can generate a list of ideas in seconds? Why labor over a perfect sentence when the AI can spit out a passable one?

Our brains, being inherently lazy (or rather, efficient), are all too eager to take the path of least resistance. This outsourcing of thinking can lead to a decline in analytical skills, critical judgment and creative problem-solving. We become proficient at prompting but perhaps less so at thinking. It’s like building magnificent biceps by just staring at weights while a robot does the lifting.

Training for Smarter AI: Collaborative Enhancement, Not Cognitive Abdication

So, how do we harness the immense power of AI without turning our own cognitive gears into rusty relics? The answer lies in engagement, not abdication. Think of AI as a supremely talented intern, not your replacement. Companies need to fundamentally shift their approach to AI training from “here’s a tool, go use it” to “here’s a powerful collaborator, let’s learn to dance together.”

(Andrew Rybalko/Shutterstock)

Aggressive Editing, Proofreading and Fact-Checking: Treat AI-generated content like a highly caffeinated first draft – full of energy, but possibly a little messy and prone to making things up. Your job isn’t to just hit “generate” and walk away unless you enjoy explaining AI hallucinations or factual inaccuracies to your boss (or worse, your audience). Always, always edit aggressively, proofread and, most critically, fact-check every single output. This process isn’t just about catching AI’s mistakes; it actively engages your critical thinking skills, forcing you to verify information and refine expression. Think of it as intellectual calisthenics.
Iterative Prompt Engineering and Refinement: Don’t settle for the first answer AI gives you. Engage in a dialogue. Refine your prompts, ask follow-up questions, request different perspectives and challenge its assumptions. This iterative process of refinement forces you to think more clearly about your own needs, to be precise in your instructions, and to critically evaluate the nuances of the AI’s response. You become a collaborator, not just a consumer. It’s like sculpting – the first block of marble isn’t the masterpiece; it’s the careful chiseling that reveals the art.

Pioneering the Collaborative AI Workplace: Real-World Examples

Some forward-thinking organizations are already adopting this “human-in-the-loop” approach to AI, integrating it into their training programs and workflows to enhance cognitive functions rather than degrade them:

Accenture: Known for its extensive AI training programs, Accenture often emphasizes “human-in-the-loop” processes”, where AI assists and augments human decision-making rather than completely automating it. They focus on training employees to understand AI’s strengths and limitations, and how to effectively collaborate with AI tools.
Google: With its long-standing research into responsible AI and AI ethics, Google promotes frameworks for human oversight and verification of AI outputs across its product teams. Their internal training emphasizes critical engagement with AI.
IBM: Through its IBM Watson platform, IBM has often positioned AI as an augmentation tool for professionals in healthcare and finance, training users to leverage AI for insights and analysis while retaining ultimate human judgment and responsibility.

(tadamichi/Shutterstock)

These companies recognize that the goal isn’t to replace human intelligence, but to amplify it, treating AI as a powerful copilot.

Skills for the AI-Augmented Future: What to Seek in New Hires

As AI reshapes the job market, the skills required for success are evolving. Companies need to look for candidates who can effectively partner with AI, not just operate it. This means prioritizing:

AI Literacy/Fluency: Not necessarily coding AI, but understanding its capabilities, limitations and ethical implications. Can they speak AI’s language?
Critical Thinking & Analytical Skills: The ability to evaluate AI outputs, identify biases and verify information remains paramount. Can they spot a plausible-sounding hallucination?
Prompt Engineering Expertise: The art of crafting effective queries to extract precise and useful information from AI models. Can they ask the right questions?
Domain Expertise: A deep understanding of their specific field to fact-check AI outputs and ensure accuracy. Can they tell if the AI is confidently wrong?
Ethical Reasoning: A strong moral compass to ensure AI is used responsibly and fairly. Do they know right from robot-wrong?
Adaptability & Continuous Learning: The AI landscape changes daily; employees must be eager to learn new tools and paradigms. Are they willing to update their own internal operating system?
Soft Skills: Collaboration, communication, creativity and emotional intelligence will be increasingly vital as human/AI teams become the norm. Can they play nicely with others, even if “others” is a server farm?

Wrapping Up: Your Brain Enhanced, not Replaced by AI

The MIT study serves as a crucial wake-up call: over-reliance on AI can indeed make us “stupid” by atrophying our critical thinking skills. However, the solution isn’t to shun AI, but to engage with it intelligently and responsibly. By aggressively editing, proofreading and fact-checking AI outputs, by iteratively refining prompts and by strategically choosing the right AI tool for each task, we can ensure AI serves as a powerful enhancer, not a detrimental crutch. Companies must train their employees to understand this collaborative model, fostering a workplace where AI amplifies human intelligence rather than diminishes it. The future isn’t about humans vs. AI; it’s about humans with AI. The imperative is clear: use your AI, but don’t lose your mind in the process. Your intellectual muscle mass depends on it.

About the author: As President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, Rob Enderle provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to create credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero dollar marketing. For over 20 years Rob has worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, ROLM, and Siemens.