AI tools can erode critical thinking, experts warn
15 Mar 2026

As artificial intelligence (AI) products become more prevalent, experts are warning against the potential dangers of over-reliance on these tools.

The fear is that this dependence could erode critical thinking skills and lower overall cognitive ability.

Research indicates the online environment exploits our cognitive tendencies, individual differences in thinking, perception, attention, and memory.

This leads some people to take more mental shortcuts and engage with information superficially.

Impact of AI on cognitive processes
Cognitive effects

The over-reliance on AI can affect our cognitive processes, which involve three main tasks: encoding information, storing it, and retrieving it.

When we are bombarded with information, we tend to offload tasks to external sources (like AI tools) to reduce mental effort.

However, this can compromise our storage and retrieval capabilities, two more taxing aspects of cognition.

Finding balance is key
Balance needed

Experts suggest that to maintain cognitive health, we should perform more difficult cognitive tasks ourselves instead of offloading them to AI tools.

This is similar to how walking to a friend's place is better exercise for your body and mind than driving there.

The key is finding a balance between using these tools and doing the hard work of thinking ourselves, which can be achieved through reflective practices.