For ages, instinct, a uniquely human quality, has been an important part of the decision-making process for business leaders. But in today’s boardrooms, executives increasingly outsource their thinking to AI: so is this still leadership?
Last year, when MIT researchers said that using chatbots too much makes us dumber, they explained that students were at higher risk because AI could impair the learning process and the successful internalization of the information.
Fair enough: with as many as 84% students in America relying on AI for homework, critics point out that the trend is not only enabling cut-and-paste laziness but also igniting severe brainrot. Independent work is becoming quite rare, indeed.
But a new study has found that AI-induced brainrot is increasingly prevalent among business executives as well. Yes, the ones who are so enthusiastic about unleashing AI on the rest of us.
Research by data streaming tools vendor Confluent has revealed that business leaders in the United Kingdom are essentially outsourcing their cognitive and emotional labor to their AI chatbots.
“Six in ten top executives say they now use AI to make the majority of their decisions. One in four even let AI help with hiring and firing,” says the study.
200 various owners, founders, CEOs, and other business leaders were surveyed. The study found that 62% of respondents use AI to make “most decisions.”
A stunning 70% of the polled leaders reported second-guessing their own ideas when they conflicted with AI’s recommendations, and 46% said they now rely on advice from AI more than that of their own business colleagues.
It’s quite sad because by now, numerous studies, including this one by Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft, have shown that knowledge workers who trust generative AI have a lower propensity for critical thought.
There’s no reason business executives should be an exception, even though they typically think of themselves as pretty smart.
In other words, by pushing AI on their employees despite the very real risk of brain atrophy, the executives are also risking the loss of human skills. One of these intangibles is the gut feeling, also known as instinct, which is needed for proper leadership.
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“AI now plays a central role in executive decision-making, with leaders increasingly turning to algorithms for speed, certainty, and confidence,” says the study.
Commendably, though, Lila Shroff, assistant editor for The Atlantic, has recently referred to people who outsource their thinking to AI as “LLeMmings” and called this the “Google Maps-ification” of the mind.
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