AI Is Making You Dumber. Here Is What You Must Know.
Read time: 6 minutes
Welcome to AI-Empowered Leaders. In this weekly email, I share actionable advice on AI adoption, use cases & strategic thinking from my experience as AI Trainer, Leadership Coach, and Advisor.
From the Trenches
I started noticing it rougly a year ago.
After months of buildy my AI consultancy, working with AI every day, I sat down to write an article.
I used to write a lot before AI was a thing. Ideas and logic would usually flow naturally.
But this time? I kept staring at the blanc page. My mind was heavy. My fingers were itching to open ChatGPT.
I started noticing similar things in client meetings. Explaining ideas that used to flow naturally suddenly felt harder.
Why?
I quick perplexity search confirmed my suspicion.
What I found scared me.
Though it really shouldn't surprise anyone:
AI is making us dumber.
What the science says
Three major studies came out in the last 12 months. Different methods, similar verdict.
Study 1: Swiss Business School (2025)
666 participants across all age groups. The finding: Significant negative correlation between freqeuent AI use and critical thinking skills.
The mechanism is called Cognitive Offloading. We basically hand our thinking to AI. Hence, our brains stop doing the reps. Thinking erodes. Younger users are more affected.
Study 2: MIT Media Lab (2025)
Researchers had 54 people write SAT essays using ChatGPT, Google search, or nothing at all. They monitored brain activity with EEG scanners across 32 brain regions.
The result: ChatGPT users showed the lowest brain engagement of all three groups. And it got worse over time. By the end of the study, many had stopped trying entirely and were just copy-pasting.
The lead researcher, Nataliya Kosmyna, is now running a similar study with software engineers. Her words: "The results are even worse."
Study 3: Microsoft Research & Carngie Mellon University (2025)
319 knowledge workers. 936 real-world examples of using AI at work.
Their finding? The more you trust AI's ability to do a task, the less critical thinking you apply. The more you trust your own ability, the more you think. Even when using AI.
Read that again.
What Most People Are Missing
It's the trust. Too much of it.
Most of the conversation around "AI making us dumber" frames it as a tech problem. Use AI less, think more.
That's too simple.
The Microsoft study reveals something more nuanced. The decline in thinking isn't caused by AI use itself. It's caused by blind trust in AI. Workers who trusted their own judgment still thought critically, even while using AI heavily.
The real question isn't How much AI should I use?
It's: Do I still trust my own brain more than the machine?
The calculator analogy doesn't hold.
People have told me: "Same thing happened with calculators. We stopped doing mental math. We were fine, right?"
Wrong.
It's not the same.
Mental math is one narrow skill. A fraction of your cognitive capacity. Probably safe to outsource.
But when you outsource thinking itself: structuring arguments, evaluating evidence, making judgment calls, forming original ideas?
That's not outsourcing a task. That's outsourcing you.
The brain gym is coming
Our ancestors would have laughed at the idea of a gym. Running without going anywhere? Lifting heavy things for no reason?
We're about to have the same moment with thinking.
As AI handles more cognitive work, deliberate brain training will shift from "nice to have" to "career essential." The World Economic Forum has ranked analytical thinking as the #1 core skill employers need for three consecutive reports. Seven out of ten companies now consider it essential.
Yet, just as this skill becomes more important, we're systematically weakening it. Bad timing.
Your team is affected too
This isn't just a personal risk. It's an organizational one.
If your team uses AI for drafting, analysis, research, and planning without any guardrails, their independent thinking capacity is eroding.
Slowly. Quietly. And you won't notice until you actually need them to think.
What I tell my clients: the most dangerous AI risk isn't data leaks or hallucinations. It's a workforce that forgot how to reason without a prompt.
THE PLAYBOOK: How to Train Your Mind in the AI Age
Here are five practices I've implemented since my own wake-up call. They're simple. But they work VERY well.
1. Think before you prompt
Before you open your chatbot, spend 2-3 minutes writing down what a good answer would look like. What's the structure? What are the key points? What does "done well" mean for this task?
This does two things: it keeps your thinking sharp, and it makes your prompts dramatically better. Because knowing what "good" looks like is the skill that separates a power user from a dependent one.
2. Write without AI. Regularly.
Pick one type of writing you do regularly. Emails, strategy memos, weekly updates. Commit to doing it without AI for at least one session per week.
It will feel slower. That's the point. You're training the muscle. And you'll quickly discover where your thinking has gaps you've been papering over with AI outputs.
3. Explain your expertise to someone. Without AI.
Ask someone to quiz you on a topic you're supposed to be an expert in. Then explain it. Clearly. Without checking anything.
If you can't explain something simply, you haven't fully understood it.
This is the fastest way to expose blind spots in your own knowledge.
4. Debrief your AI interactions
After you use AI for an important task, ask yourself:
- What did I contribute to this result?
- What would I have done differently without AI?
- Could I defend this output in a meeting?
If the honest answers make you uncomfortable, that's useful information.
THE MONDAY TEST
This week, try this:
Before you prompt AI on any complex task, first write down in 3-4 bullet points what a good answer would look like. Structure. Key points. Quality criteria. Then prompt.
Notice the difference. In the AI output. And in your own clarity of thought.
Your job isn't to be faster than AI. It's to be smarter than those who stopped thinking.
In the AI age your thinking muscle will be your biggest differentiator. Don't let it erode.
Am I being too dramatic? Or are we really creating a new crisis?
Let me know what you think.
Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you win with AI:
1) AI Business Advisory
Spot, plan & launch AI use cases that save hours and unlock new value.
2) AI Enablement
Take your team on a journey from AI beginners to critical-thinking power-users—working securely across tools, saving costs, and driving results.
I’ve already trained and coached 2,000+ leaders who are saving hours and performing at a higher level. Your team could be next.
Have questions? Hit reply to this email and I'll help out!
Talk soon,
Alex