Is AI deskilling you? 2 habits that weaken your skills

Half of the more than 70 global C-suite leaders surveyed by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in June say critical skills are actively eroding inside their organisations. The skills fading fastest are the ones they rate most important to long-term performance: problem framing, judgement, creative thinking and solution evaluation.

Speaking to Business Insider, David Martin, global head of people and organisation at BCG, said that employees are at "existential risk" of deskilling themselves into irrelevance in the labour market.

According to BCG, only one out of ten companies has a plan to tackle deskilling. One in three firms has never talked about it at all. The burden of protecting their skills is left on the shoulders of the employees.

Martin says it is easy to spot a colleague who asked AI to summarise a slide deck they were meant to read. They cannot answer follow-up questions or go a level deeper. "It's like they only know what the AI told them," he said.

The strongest workers still put follow-up questions to themselves, even after AI gives them a first summary.

According to Martin, erosion occurs among those employees who use AI for more than just menial tasks such as composing emails. There are others who even use AI for the core of their business and content; that is, the part which requires strategy and expertise.

He does not oppose using AI in such a way; however, he advises not to accept the result without any questions. According to him, one should try to play the opponent's role and put forward all the questions which could be raised.

To stop cognitive decline, Martin suggests taking a one-week holiday from AI every quarter in order to prove that one can manage the job as effectively without AI as before.