Cognitive Offloading: Using AI Reduces New Skill Formation
Psychology Today | 15.02.2026 22:57AI use can speed up many tasks; for example, analyzing complex data. However, using AI to complete a task at work or for a hobby could lead to so-called cognitive offloading. Cognitive offloading means that someone who uses AI to do a task is not as mentally engaged in a task as someone who completes the task all by themselves. While this may not matter too much for the outcome of the task, cognitive offloading may be problematic when it comes to learning something new. When a task is performed with the aim of learning it, offloading it to AI may lead to worse learning success as opposed to conducting the task 100% with their own brain. However, psychological research on whether or not cognitive offloading has negative effects on learning success is sparse so far.