GenAI and De‑skilling: Protect Critical Thinking, Creativity and Accountability

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De-skilling: A Side Effect of GenAI on Both Individuals and Organizations

Problem understanding and framing, critical thinking, decision-making, and creative thinking are the skills employees most often lose because of overreliance on artificial intelligence tools.

 The visible effects of the de-skilling on the entire organization are not only a decline in the quality of the work output – ideas, products, deliverables – but also a reduced accountability and ownership: as mentioned in the BCG article, “AI suggested it” becomes a shield, and nobody feels fully responsible.

How can we prevent this de-skilling? How can leaders protect their team’s cognitive abilities from atrophy and ensure diverse, creative, and robust thinking? How can an organization guarantee that employees at any level own the results of their work, not because there is their name on it but because they feel answerable for the outcomes of actions, decisions, and mistakes?

To reduce and prevent “side effects” of the extended use of AI, BCG suggests the implementation of AI governance, defining conditions and rules for when and how to use GenAI, along with other strategies aimed at ensuring human skills continue to thrive alongside technological advancements (such as the implementation of AI-free problem-solving sessions, the use of AI in a non-linear way, or the redesign of performance management processes to assess the use of human skills in the employees’ outcomes).

However, in my view, the most relevant takeaway from the BCG survey is that using GenAI tools does not compromise other human skills that are equally relevant to organizational performance and can help prevent the atrophy of other skills that are more at risk.

Improving People Skills to Protect Against De-skilling

Empathy and active listening, motivation and self-awareness, curiosity and lifelong learning, and resilience, flexibility, agility, leadership, and social influence all stem from human relationships, personal experiences, and emotional intelligence.

AI cannot replace these skills. More importantly, nurturing those skills can help the organization protect the other critical skills most at risk.

In a previous article, I highlighted how leadership in the AI era can elevate teams’ performance in critical and strategic thinking, creativity, and value generation. But there is more than that.

Individuals adapt their opinion, revise their beliefs, or change their behavior as a result of social interactions with other people. As a result, social influence can play a crucial role in maintaining creativity and critical thinking within an organization. It encourages individuals to take ownership of their ideas and work, discuss and confront others, and stand out by contributing something new.

Empathy, active listening, and curiosity are fundamental to individual growth and can preserve other essential skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. Employees who keep an open mind, put themselves in others’ shoes, and make a conscious effort to hear and understand others can analyze situations from different perspectives, capture details and relevant information, and ask the right questions to frame and solve a challenging situation.

Lastly, self-awareness, which is the ability to tune in to our thoughts, emotions, and actions, and to understand how they affect both ourselves and other people, is an essential prerequisite for consequential thinking and decision-making.

To prevent employees from giving up their ability to analyze the risks and consequences of their actions and make conscious decisions, we need to increase self-awareness in the workplace.

The 3 Strategies to Boost the Organizational Immune System

To avoid GenAI’s side effects and prevent employees from losing fundamental skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making, companies must strengthen efforts to maintain core people skills across the organization.

1. Invest in people skills right from the hiring phase by assessing candidates for leadership, empathy, and social influence as prerequisites. Additionally, implement learning and development initiatives to help employees cultivate these skills in a complex, AI-driven work environment.
2. Promote human interactions to model behaviors, limiting the use of AI in fundamental workplace activities, such as mentoring, coaching, team meetings, and brainstorming sessions, to allow employees to use active listening, empathy, social influence, etc.
3. Build nurturing cultures that support emotional wellbeing, value diversity, and foster employee engagement, to promote collaboration, a shared sense of accountability, and commitment to the organizational objectives.

In our rapidly evolving, technology-driven world, actively preserving and cultivating “human skills” remains the most effective strategy for individuals and organizations to succeed and thrive.

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