AI is changing how individuals think and perform mental work. As people use AI more frequently, they become more trusting of AI’s capabilities and less of their own. This could have wide-reaching consequences. “Our sense of the world may become distorted in ways we have barely begun to comprehend,” write American academics Ada Palmer and Bruce Schneir.

People are adopting AI as a personal assistant and infrastructure for negotiating routines. From managing chores to coordinating family schedules, consumers are increasingly delegating mental labour to AI. While this cognitive offloading can help with day-to-day stress, it may also reduce people’s sense of agency in identifying (even small) updates to their own routines. 

As AI enters classrooms and offices, it’s reshaping how people learn and work. While some schools and companies are eagerly entering this future – welcoming the promise of efficiency – others are more cautious, choosing to pair AI with manual, even low-effort tasks that ensure people feel mentally ready to tackle thinking-intensive assignments.

While thinking critically and expressing ideas may seem essentially human, as AI takes on writing and creative brainwork, originality is becoming trickier to define. An influx of AI-generated content – impacting everything from academia to entertainment – is forcing people to reconsider the unique value humans add to intellectual pursuits.