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According to Sandra Matz, a professor at Columbia Business School, the use of artificial intelligence can make people “boring.” Their research on this topic points to two direct consequences for workers: stagnation and mediocrity.
“If employees use it to outsource critical thinking or creative thinking, there is a real risk of gradually falling behind and becoming complacent,” Matz said.
One reason for this is that many AI tools produce the most obvious and safe responses, she said: “In short, we become just like everyone else.”
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According to a study published in March by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 43% of U.S. workers already say they use AI in their work.
But many professionals may have difficulty distinguishing between helpful and harmful uses of the technology, said Fred Oswald, an industrial and organizational psychologist and former member of the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee.
“There is a Wild West of AI usage that needs to be understood and explored so that employees and organizations can manage risk and derive further benefit,” said Oswald.
AI should not “replace” judgment
Using AI can be “fantastic” to increase your productivity by automating and speeding up everyday work tasks, Matz said. The technology can also be used as a “sparring partner for brainstorming,” she said.
But you don’t want AI to replace your own thinking, problem solving and creativity, she added.
“The moment all employees start consulting AI in developing their ideas, independent thinking begins to give way to algorithmic consensus,” Matz said.
Americus Reed II, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business, said his colleagues call outsourcing your critical thinking to AI “cognitive capitulation.”
Instead, AI is best used for summarizing information, analyzing data and organizing ideas, Reed said.
“It should eliminate friction, not replace judgment,” he said. “The goal is to spend less time processing information and more time creating meaning.”
There is a Wild West of AI usage.
Fred Oswald
a business and organizational psychologist
Those early in their careers should be particularly careful not to let AI hinder their learning, said Dorothy Leidner, a professor of economics and ethics at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce.
“The risk is higher for younger workers who do not have the in-depth expertise to use AI as a thought amplifier rather than a thought generator,” Leidner said.
Using AI with colleagues can “undermine trust”
Using AI to compose emails or Slack messages to colleagues, employees or managers “will gradually erode trust,” Matz said.
While AI can summarize a meeting or produce a progress report, informal interactions in the workplace should be organic and spontaneous, she said.
“The moment we suspect a message has been outsourced to AI, we may wonder whether our colleagues care enough to write to us themselves,” she said.
It should eliminate friction, not replace judgment.
Americus Reed II
Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of Business
It’s the imperfections, the lack of polish and even the tensions in communication that lead to the strongest connections, she said.
“Maintaining these human signals in our interactions will be a major challenge for companies adopting AI,” Matz said.
Leidner said she also advises against relying too much on “digital twins” or your virtual clone when talking to people you know.
“If we get to the point where the AI is generating the emails and the AI is responding to the emails, then no actual communication is happening,” Leidner said.
Find your meaning where AI falls short
Eva Selenko, a professor of industrial psychology at Loughborough University in England, said she is most concerned about people using AI for tasks that are “central to a person’s self-image as a professional.”
“Seeing a tool outperform you at a core task of your expertise can be a status threat,” Selenko said. “When these opportunities are taken away from you, your self-image becomes a little more unstable.”
However, experiences like this may be inevitable as technology improves, Reed said.
“When AI performs tasks that you’ve long considered ‘your thing,’ it’s natural to ask, ‘What more value do I bring?'” Reed said.
The answer isn’t to stop using the tools, but rather to “understand the qualities that AI can’t reproduce,” Reed said.
“Employees need to remember that adopting AI is not the same as outsourcing their identity,” he said. “Technology is changing rapidly, but the unique human skills – judgment, creativity, curiosity and relationships – are becoming even more valuable.”
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https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/19/how-using-ai-at-work-can-hurt-your-career.html
