Confidence in the tool went with less checking. Confidence in one's own skills went with more.
A study by Lee and colleagues, presented at the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, surveyed 319 knowledge workers about 936 real examples of using AI at work. Those who trusted the tool more reported thinking less critically. Those who trusted their own abilities more reported thinking more critically. The work itself shifted — from producing to checking, combining, and taking responsibility for what the machine produced.¹
Talent Takeaway: Your team's job is changing underneath them. Editing and judgment are becoming the work. Say so out loud — and train for it — before people draw their own conclusions.
¹ Lee, H., Sarkar, A., Tankelevitch, L., Drosos, I., Rintel, S., Banks, R., & Wilson, N. (2025). The impact of generative AI on critical thinking: Self-reported reductions in cognitive effort and confidence effects from a survey of knowledge workers. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713778
Further reading: Bastani, H., et al. (2025). Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(26). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2422633122