16Apr2026
As the conversation around AI evolves, the fear of AI replacing our jobs is starting to fade. Another relevant question is starting to emerge: will AI replace our thinking? If we delegate our brainpower to AI, will we end up becoming less intelligent?
Adopting AI is not the challenge anymore. The challenge now is adopting AI strategically. If we are not smart about it, AI may end up making us dumber. Leaders need to find ways to use AI that will preserve and enhance our cognitive skills, not replace or weaken them.
The Cognitive Trade-Off We Should Be Discussing
We recently hosted Doctor of Psychology Mona Moisala and Pactum AI CEO Kaspar Korjus on the Nordic Business Forum podcast. The discussion focused on a question many leaders are starting to face: How to use AI to strengthen your team’s thinking, not weaken it?
Mona highlighted an important nuance. In the short term, AI can improve performance. Studies have shown that students using AI tools can feel more motivated and might achieve better results. However, there’s a flipside. We don’t yet have enough long-term data on the prolonged impact of AI on our brain. Are the short-term benefits worth risking a potential long-term cost?
Early research suggests caution. In a recent MIT study researchers found that using AI in essay writing reduced connectivity between different regions of the brain. Participants also reported less ownership over their work and had more difficulty recalling their own text, compared to a group that did not use AI. This doesn’t mean AI is harmful in itself, but it does suggest that how we use it matters.
The difference might come down to whether AI is used as a tool or a substitute. Mona is an advocate for “thinking first and prompting second.” It’s a small shift, but the long-term impact could be significant. When people jump straight to AI, they are outsourcing the most valuable part of their work: the thinking process. But if they engage with their own reasoning first, AI can be a great sparring partner.
Used wisely, AI can challenge our ideas, expand our perspectives, and sharpen our own thinking. As Kaspar Korjus put it: “You don’t lose your thinking, you just have to do a different type of thinking.”
4 Tips For Using AI Without Weakening Your Team’s Thinking
Since AI is reshaping how people think at work, leaders can’t afford to leave its use up to chance. In the absence of clear direction, people will default to convenience: using AI to save time, skip steps, and reduce effort. While efficient in the short term, this may be costly in the long run.
To prevent the negative outcome scenarios, leaders should take a strategic approach. Don’t just enable AI adoption, but actively design how it is used to ensure it enhances thinking without weakening it. Here are the first steps toward an intentional AI strategy:
1. Set a clear principle: thinking comes first
Encourage the idea that AI is there to support thinking, not to replace it. Encourage people to form their own perspectives and ideas first before turning to AI. The goal is better solutions, not just fast ones.
2. Design workflows where AI challenges rather than replaces
Build processes where AI is used to review, critique, and expand work, not generate it from scratch. Keep the ownership of thinking, innovation, and decision-making firmly with humans.
3. Train people to work with AI, not just use it
Using AI effectively is a skill, and one that needs to be developed deliberately. Teach your teams how to prompt, evaluate, and refine outputs. Passive use leads to passive thinking, and over time the impact compounds.
4. Make safe, approved tools and practices available
If you don’t provide clear, secure options, people will default to their own tools and systems. That may create not only data risks, but also inconsistency in how AI is used across the organization.
The Hidden Risk: Unstructured AI Adoption
Many organizations are focused on not falling behind in AI. The bigger risk, however, is moving forward too fast and without structure.
Without clear guidelines, you are facing two types of risks. The first is cognitive. Over time, unstructured AI use can erode critical thinking, weaken problem-solving, and reduce original thought. The second is operational. Without guardrails, organizations expose themselves to data leaks, misuse of sensitive information, and inconsistent outputs.
Safe AI adoption requires more than just access to tools. It requires clear systems, shared guidelines, and intentional ways of working. It also requires openness. If the use of AI is discouraged or the guidelines are vague, people will use it anyway but in secret.
That is when mistakes happen.
Build a Culture of Intention and Inspiration Around AI
As a leader, you set the tone for how AI is understood and used in your company. Its introduction should not be driven by pressure or fear, but by curiosity and clear guidelines. There will always be those who are hesitant to adopt new technologies, and your role is to inspire, not force, that shift. Make adoption as painless as possible by providing the right tools, practical training, and clear guidance. At the same time, create space for honest conversations. Some will still worry about being replaced, and those concerns should be addressed openly. The goal is not dependency, but collaboration. AI works best as a co-thinker, not a substitute.
Building this kind of culture requires openness. Encourage teams to share how they use AI, create space for discussion and co-learning, and make the use of AI visible across the organization. This not only builds capability, but also awareness of both the opportunities and the risks.
At the same time, reinforce what remains distinctly human. AI cannot replace critical thinking and creativity, vision and purpose, or empathy and connection. And yet, these are the foundation of long-term performance.
The Question You Should Ask Next
In a world where the pace of work continues to accelerate, protecting cognitive capacity and employee well-being should not be an afterthought. It should be a strategic priority. AI might save time, but the important question is: what will you do with that time?
If the answer is simply more work, the outcome is likely increased pressure without meaningful improvement in results. If the answer includes reflection, learning, and recovery, the impact can be very different. Performance improves, but so does wellbeing — and wellbeing is the foundation to sustainable, long-term performance.
At its best, AI can help you create a positive loop. It enables efficiency and frees up time, and if that time is then reinvested into your people, it can further strengthen productivity.
Now is the moment to take a closer look at how AI is used in your organization. Using AI will not automatically weaken thinking or lead to “brainrot”. But over time, unstructured and passive use of AI can erode the very capabilities your organization was built on.
The companies that will benefit most from AI will not be those that use it the most. They will be the ones who use it with the most intention.
Learn More about Smart Use of AI
To dive deeper into how to use AI without letting it rot your brain, listen to our podcast episode with Mona Moisala and Kaspar Korjus.
