Capability Atrophy: The Hidden Cost of AI on Human Expertise

As we outsource thinking, are we creating a generation unable to think for themselves?

When you tell the graphic designer ‘make me pop’ and they take it literally. Somewhere between ‘hypnotic cult leader’ and ‘radioactive game show host’ was apparently the vibe.

Picture this: A junior analyst crafts the perfect report using AI, it has flawless analysis, elegant visualizations, executive-ready insights. Then comes the meeting where they’re asked to explain their reasoning on the spot. Suddenly, their digital eloquence evaporates. As AI rewrites the rules of work and learning, we’re witnessing expertise being redefined in real-time, leaving me wrestling with what this new currency of competency means for the next generation.

Recently, I was speaking at an event when an attendee raised a question that’s startlingly simple yet profound: as businesses increasingly deploy AI for lower-level work, where will our young talent learn to think critically, for the senior roles that we need, if they never do the foundational work?

We call this capability atrophy, a quiet decay of skills driven by automation. The more we outsource our thinking, the less practice we get at doing it ourselves. The concept addresses how automated systems gradually erode human capabilities through disuse rather than design. Like muscles that weaken without exercise, cognitive abilities diminish when offloaded to AI. It’s particularly concerning because this atrophy happens slowly and almost imperceptibly – we don’t realize what we’ve lost until we suddenly need those skills again

If AI handles all the foundational work, where does that pattern recognition develop? The automation gap creates this missing developmental pathway, the critical bridge between novice and expert that technology is quietly dismantling.

I recently read an article about how millennials are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with in-person meetings. And a Gallup poll found that 40% of Gen Z feels anxious about AI; concerned not just about jobs, but about what it’s doing to their capacity to think critically. Many feel their AI co-pilots make them sound smarter and more polished in digital communications.

A sort of disintermediation of experience happens when technology eliminates the productive struggle that has traditionally been essential to mastery. Think about learning to play chess by studying thousands of games and making countless mistakes versus having an AI coach instantly tell you the optimal move each time. The latter might seem efficient, but it bypasses the valuable neural pathways formed through struggle and discovery. In professional settings, this manifests when junior employees no longer experience the trial-and-error of solving problems independently because AI provides immediate solutions. The expertise that once came from years of hands-on experience becomes increasingly difficult to develop.

This isn’t just a tech story, it’s a human one. A shift that’s reshaping not just learning systems, but expectations, aspirations, and even identities.

I think about that attendee’s question and wonder if we’re inadvertently creating ladderless organizations; workplace structures where traditional career progression is fundamentally broken because the entry and mid-level tracks have been automated away. This connects to another troubling phenomenon called cognitive hollowing, where AI increasingly substitutes for cognitive processes, decision-making, and even creativity. The risk isn’t just that certain jobs disappear, but that entire domains of human thinking atrophy from disuse.

It’s imperative to remember that the future of work isn’t just about smarter machines, it’s about more empowered humans.

I believe as a society, we’re at a real inflection point. On one side: the promise of democratized learning, personalized growth, and faster, more efficient education. On the other: the risk of losing the messiness and magic of human thought.

@Kacee