Challenges of Adopting AI Technology: The Decline of Cognitive and Creative Skills

This is an edited excerpt from the third edition of Artificial Intelligence for HR.

AI and the Decline of Cognitive and Creative Skills

One of the topics I’ve begun to incorporate into my speaking and education on artificial intelligence is the impact it can have on human cognitive skills and creativity. A number of different research efforts have begun to produce evidence that overreliance on AI can negatively affect our ability to think. This happens in a variety of ways. For starters, imagine trying to build a house. You’re trying to put the roof on, but the walls were built quickly and with little focus. It’s likely that the roof will cave in or fall over because it doesn’t have a strong enough structure to hold it up.

That same scaffolding of skills is of very real concern. If someone is using generative AI tools early in their career and gets to a point where their job isn’t as routine and predictable, will they be able to perform their work? Within the HR context, a parallel is this: Many of us that work in the HR world started out in the file room. We saw how processes worked, how deci­sions were made, and what the flow of information looked like. Then as we matured in our careers, we could make our own decisions with judgment and insight based on those early experiences. But if we skipped all of that experiential learning because AI was handling it, could we truly make an intelligent decision as a generalist, manager, or VP of HR without that foun­dational knowledge?

The National Institute of Health published a paper on this very topic, highlighting the risk of “skill decay” that could occur due to AI usage. The most worrisome aspect of the report is this quote:

"A potential complicating factor is that experts may be unaware of their skill decay. In cases where a person has ceased the task altogether, they will be aware that they have not used their skills and may be more likely to be aware of their skill decay. In contrast, AI-induced skill decay may operate outside the performer’s awareness because the disuse is only at the level of cognitive skill engagement, not with engagement with the task. As such, a surgeon using an AI assistant may believe their skills are still sharp because they have continued to perform operations at a high level (i.e., successful surgeries). They may not consider how well they would be able to perform without the AI assistant, such as selecting appropriate operative techniques, navigating complex anatomy, or optimizing visualization."

In the world of human resources and talent, that example may look more like this: We have a relatively strong pipeline of passive candidates available for recruitment, so we think we’re successful, but we may not be considering other strategies that aren’t affected by AI, such as engagement opportunities, branding campaigns, or other approaches that could increase that number of interested candidates.

The second reason this cognitive decline is happening is because of lazi­ness. Not the “sitting on the couch eating snacks” laziness, but the natural mechanisms our brains use to moderate and manage our daily activities. Our brains are wired to conserve energy. When we’re giving the brain signals that something is taken care of, it stops putting effort and focus into solving it. A small daily example of that is email—how many times have you sent an email to someone and forgot you sent it for a few days until a deadline comes around? You send it, you tell your brain that the recipient has things under control, and your brain moves on to other topics and priorities.

Unlike some topics I speak on, this one can make people defensive, espe­cially if they’re using generative AI tools to support their work and tasks on a regular basis. The most common response I get is, “I used to remember phone numbers and now I can’t because I have a cell phone. Should I quit using my phone?” It’s common to also hear a similar question about calcula­tors versus mental math. The difference in this discussion about AI and those examples is that remembering a phone number or doing some quick math is now easier, but it doesn’t fundamentally alter our ability to think. Using AI to generate email responses, answer questions on your behalf, or give you ideas for projects is fundamentally altering your ability to think and do those tasks. At a fundamental level, AI is reshaping how we process information and make decisions, often diminishing our reliance on our own cognitive abilities.

Let’s close with a final piece of research that is directly related to the work of human resources.

Fabrizio Dell’Acqua wanted to understand how AI tools would impact the work of recruiters. He gave four different groups of recruiters access to strong, good, bad, or no AI tools and observed their work. Those with the strong, highly predictive AI were much more likely to metaphorically “fall asleep” at the wheel with the AI driving. Those with the “bad” algorithm were more likely to invest their time and effort into confirming recommen­dations and making decisions. In the end, this is how Dell’Acqua commented on the findings, “These results confirm my predictions about ‘falling asleep at the wheel.’ Subjects receiving better quality AI spend less time on their job applications. Their performance is not affected if they collaborate with the ‘Perfect Prediction,’ and human intervention is not required. However, in the ‘Good AI’ condition, which would require humans to invest more time and effort to improve their performance, subjects neglected to do so. Subjects in the ‘Bad AI’ condition, by comparison, spent more time and effort than subjects in all other conditions.”

Translation: The more powerful and capable we believe an algorithm to be, the less we want to invest our own time, effort, and expertise into the task. When we think it’s not that great, we’re more likely to work in tandem with the algorithm to come to a confident conclusion. Ultimately, the blended and complementary strengths of humans and of algorithms are better than either raw human effort or brute force AI alone.

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