There is a risk to the fabric of industrialized society. If employees stop engaging in complex problemsolving because AI always handles it, their brains may adapt by allocating less capacity to those skills over time.
The main driver of technology acceptance is performance against a pre-defined purpose. In the latest iteration of the AI revolution, skills and use cases have yet to catch up to the speed of change in the technology landscape. While the capabilities of AI are astounding, most companies are still at the stage of intending to use AI, considering use cases, or even wondering where to begin. As IT departments take the inexorable steps towards implementing a single AI solution in their technical environments, the workforce is left to figure out what the use cases should be. Since the level of skill in any workforce will be normally distributed, there is an inevitable consequence: most use cases are rudimentary, such as responding to emails or capturing meeting minutes, or basic reduction of cognitive burden en masse.
Risks of AI implementation
While there are many potential benefits to implementing technologies that reduce the cognitive burden on the workforce and facilitate the output of knowledge work, there are also risks. The use of AI may lead to a reduction in performance through
13, 14 the increase in procrastination or distraction. And a potential feeling of over-qualification( such that a person equipped with AI tools might have a false sense of their own abilities) with indirect negative effects on job satisfaction and motivation.
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One often overlooked implication of AI-driven automation is its effect on human cognition, and the potential for cognitive atrophy that might arise from excessive reliance on AI. 16
Our brains are remarkably plastic, they rewire themselves based on what we practice and use regularly. 17 The adage“ use it or lose it” very much applies: When we consistently offload mental tasks to machines, we risk dulling our own cognitive skills. 18 For example, people who heavily
There is a risk to the fabric of industrialized society. If employees stop engaging in complex problemsolving because AI always handles it, their brains may adapt by allocating less capacity to those skills over time.
The Kyndryl Institute Journal 51