In December 2025, I had written in one of my newsletters:
….the core question is whether delegating cognitive tasks to AI makes us more efficient or quietly atrophies the mental skills we stop exercising. Neuroimaging research shows that people who used an LLM to complete cognitive tasks showed measurably less brain activity in networks associated with deep processing and critical thinking than those who worked independently.
Researchers who used AI to compile papers were often unable to recall key information from their own work — cited as a telling sign of cognitive disengagement. Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely promoted as a force multiplier for organizations, promising efficiency, speed, and data-driven insights. Yet, a new analysis warns that careless adoption of AI risks eroding the very human skills and organizational structures that underpin long-term competitiveness.
Now, a new article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) raises almost the same concerns, but for organizations implementing AI.
The Core Concern
- AI’s fluency and confidence create an illusion of competence, encouraging employees to offload critical thinking to machines, says the HBR article.
- Over-reliance on AI can hollow out tacit knowledge, judgment, and interpretive reasoning—capabilities essential for innovation, crisis response, and strategic planning.
- Organizations risk becoming technologically advanced but competitively fragile if they fail to protect human expertise.
Three Ways AI Erodes Capabilities
- People Stop Thinking
- Employees defer to AI outputs instead of developing their own analyses or strategies.
- Example: Creston Telecom (Australia) found managers presenting AI-generated scenarios without being able to defend choices.
- Solution: Instituted AI-free strategy sessions and a six-month “strategy residency” to preserve judgment and systems thinking.
- Rules Get Buried in Systems
- AI embeds subjective, moral decisions (e.g., credit approvals, promotions) into opaque algorithms.
- This undermines deliberation, accountability, and adaptability.
- Example: Piedmont Regional Bank (U.S.) noticed its Credit Committee leaning heavily on AI.
- Response: Quarterly “credit standards roundtables” to debate evolving criteria.
- Introduced apprenticeships pairing junior analysts with senior lenders, ensuring judgment and accountability remain human-driven.
- Social Ties Are Weakened
- AI displaces collaborative problem-solving, reducing trust and shared purpose.
- Example: Brightview Creative (U.K. advertising agency) saw clients leaving despite strong campaign metrics.
- Clients felt they were dealing with a “vending machine” rather than creative partners.
- Solution: Banned AI-generated content in client presentations, appointed strategic leads to articulate human judgment, and rebuilt client confidence.
Key Takeaway
AI can enhance organizational performance—but it cannot:
- Develop expertise through lived experience
- Take moral responsibility
- Build trust, courage, or shared purpose
The report says these remain irreducibly human functions. Leaders must ensure AI augments rather than replaces them, or risk losing the competitive edge that makes their organizations resilient.
Source: HBR
What’s your view on the above? Do comment.
