Be careful about submitting your work to that chatbot: A new peer-reviewed study published this month by the American Psychological Association found that people who rely heavily on AI tools for work tasks reported feeling less confident in their abilities and less ownership of their work.
There has been growing research into how our brains work when we use AI tools. A landmark study from MIT in 2025 they find that our brains do not retain much information or use critical thinking skills when writing tasks are sent to AI chatbots.
This new research aims to understand how our human behavior, especially executive functioning — such as strategic planning and decision-making — can change if AI is part of the process.
Sarah Baldeo, study author and Ph.D. candidate in AI and neuroscience at Middlesex University in England, noted in the paper that these findings do not show that AI harms or causes cognitive decline. Rather, they “highlight the diversity of how users distribute effort between themselves and AI systems under conditions of ease and skill.” That is, people using AI are making conscious trade-offs, and their confidence is decreasing as a result.
The study encouraged nearly 2,000 adults to use AI in a variety of workplace tasks, such as prioritizing projects based on deadlines, defining strategy and developing plans with incomplete information. It then asked them to self-report their levels of confidence, ownership and trust in AI, including whether they significantly altered the results produced by AI.
Overall, confidence varies with the use of AI. Greater reliance on AI was associated with lower confidence in their ability to think independently. Participants also reported relatively few changes, meaning they generally didn’t edit or put their own stamp on what the AI spat out. But those who turned to AI work reported that they felt more confident and more like a writer. Men reported higher trust in AI than women.
The trade-off between speed and depth was one of the main themes reported by participants.
“I got the answer quickly, but I don’t think I thought as deeply as I used to,” said one participant.
This shows one of the biggest commands for using AI tools. Chatbots, for example, can generate text quickly, but they don’t always have the same level of subject knowledge you need. AI tools can too lie, or make up the truthso the output generated by AI needs to be verified before it can be used.
The office is one of the main places where people use AI tools. We’re moving beyond just chatbots, with agents that can automatically handle tasks that would otherwise require a human.
But these tools don’t necessarily make our lives better; one study found that they do work days long and unpleasant. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in our work lives, it is important to understand how it shapes our attitudes. Qualities such as self-confidence and ownership of our work are important factors in determining the quality of our work life.
