Does Using AI Make You Dumber? What an MIT Study Found
7 Aug 2026
AI is making us dumber, they say. But I do not think that is the full story.
Research does show that when people rely too heavily on generative AI, critical thinking can go down. If you let the tool do all the thinking, the muscle gets weak.
That part is true.
But then there is this: MIT researchers studied around 250 employees at a consulting firm. (Link to the article below). Everyone had the same access to ChatGPT.
The work that managers rated as more creative came from the people who paid attention to their own thinking while they used the tool.
Psychologists call it metacognition. Noticing how you think while you are thinking. It sounds abstract but in practice it comes down to one question.
Before you copy an answer out of an AI tool, ask yourself: Could I defend this without it?
If the answer is no, you just handed over the part of the work that was supposed to be yours.
I believe, that used with a bit of structure, AI does the opposite of dulling you. It sharpens your thinking and gives you better output at the same time. The tool is the same for everyone. What changes is whether you stay in the driver seat.
So, no, I don't think AI makes us dumber. But when next time an answer comes back and it looks good enough, I suggest you slow down for a second. Read it like someone who has to stand behind it. Push back once. Ask for another version and see which one sounds like you.
Could you defend your last answer?
🤖 The article incl MIT study: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2026/07-08/ai-job-skills-thinking
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How this shows up in coaching senior leaders
The clients who use AI well in their work are not the ones who use it least or most. They are the ones who never stop noticing their own thinking while the tool is running. That is metacognition, and it is trainable the same way any leadership habit is trainable.
→ Before you send an AI-drafted email, ask what you would have said differently
→ Before you accept an AI-built plan, name the one assumption you would challenge in a human's plan
→ Before a decision goes out under your name, make sure you could defend it in the room without the tool open
I wrote more about what this looks like in practice in what senior leaders actually need from AI in 2026. The short version: the leaders who lose ground are not the ones using AI the most. They are the ones who stopped noticing they were using it at all.
If this resonates and you want a practical tool, I have a free **AI Coach Tünde Light** with light self-coaching prompts that help you stay in the driver seat on your own decisions, AI-assisted or not. Leave your email here and I will send it over: https://www.thechangerepublic.com/free-resources