We’ve become useless at remembering things. We need help writing simple emails, we let algorithms choose what we eat, watch, and even who we date.
And now, thanks to AI, it’s getting worse. At least that’s what everyone keeps saying.
“AI is killing our brains.”
“Kids can’t think critically anymore.”
“Employees just copy-paste ChatGPT now.”
“We’re becoming too dependent.”
You know what? They’re right.
AI is making us slower, softer, and less attentive. We don’t try to remember. We don’t try to reason, we don’t even try to write.
But that’s not exactly a bad thing. Matter of fact, it might be the best thing that’s ever happened to us.
Yes. But not in the way you think.
What if I told you this “dumbness” is strategic? That this shift is less about decline and more about evolution?
Let’s break this down.
Humans have always offloaded cognitive load to whatever tools were available. We forgot how to hunt when farming came along. We forgot how to do long division when calculators entered schools. We forgot phone numbers the moment smartphones hit our pockets.
We didn’t get worse. We got different.
That’s what’s happening again, only this time, the upgrade is faster and louder. The tools aren’t just changing how we think. They’re changing what we choose to think about.
I wouldn’t be remiss to say that the email inbox is the most brainless black hole in modern work.
You don’t need a PhD to reply to “Can we move our call to Thursday?” But you probably spent five minutes typing, tweaking, and second-guessing.
Something AI handles with hands tied behind the back.
It drafts the response, gives you options, and even adjusts the tone.
You review. You click. You move on.
That’s not “dumbing down.” That’s refusing to waste cognitive energy on low-IQ tasks.
Let’s call it what it is: intentional ignorance.
You don’t need to remember everything. You need to remember what matters.
A startup founder who doesn’t write cold emails manually anymore isn’t dumb. They’ve evolved.
A designer who lets AI generate first drafts isn’t lazy. They’re leveraging speed so they can focus on taste.
A team lead who lets AI analyze the meeting notes isn’t checked out. They’re checking into something that matters more.
Think about these two employees.
Employee A prides themselves on writing every Slack message manually. They respond to emails at lightning speed. They schedule meetings, clean data, and write reports.
Employee B built an AI twin that handles those things. They review results, intervene where needed, and spend the rest of their time making strategic decisions.
One is productive, while the other is compounding leverage. Guess which one gets promoted.
We need to redefine “smart.” It’s not about doing everything. It’s about knowing what to let go of.
Here’s a short list of stuff we should have stopped doing ages ago:
And here’s what you should be doing instead:
This is the actual shift. Not humans vs. machines. But rather humans reclaiming their brainpower from nonsense.
AI isn’t great at being original. It’s great at remixing. It’s fast, yes, but also deeply average.
So you’re right. There’s still stuff AI sucks at:
But guess what?
You’re too tired to use those things when your day is full of reply-all threads and formatting decks.
AI doesn’t kill creativity. It clears a path for it.
We spoke to a founder last week.
She said, “I used to spend 3 hours a day in Notion updating project boards, organizing to-dos, tracking feedback. It drained me.”
Now she uses AI to summarize Slack, organize notes, and prep team dashboards. Her main job is to coach her team, fix bugs in the company culture, writes brand narratives, and other such tasks. She offloaded the “smart-looking” busywork so she could finally be smart where it counts.
You’re not meant to keep everything in your head. You’re meant to build systems that think with you.
We don’t learn by memorizing trivia anymore. We learn by looking at knowledge in context.
That’s what AI is offering: A co-pilot for your mind.
Sure, you might feel dumber at first. But you’ll also free your brain to make better decisions, build sharper products, and solve harder problems.
We’re not being destroyed by AI. We’re being challenged to stop pretending productivity equals intelligence.
And here’s the real irony: Those who cling to every task, every email, every manual workflow won’t look smarter. They’ll just look slower.
So yes, AI is making us dumber. But maybe that’s exactly what we need to become brilliant again. Want to build your better self? Try ALBIS — your AI twin, designed for smarter work.
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