Will AI force us to think more?
AI’s generative capabilities is taking a lot of manual work off our shoulders and providing a productivity boost. This initially feels like we might start to think less as AI creates more on our behalf.
But the time saved by AI will create a vacuum that needs to be filled. That time will be filled with the ‘what to do’ rather than just the ‘doing’ of tasks. Deciding what to do (strategy) and then doing it (execution) are two very different things. We have spent a lot of time in previous years in the execution phase of continually doing - and much less time on the strategy side.
Jevons Paradox
Imagine you could make all the cars currently in use more efficient - so that the cost of running these cars went down (as the fuel usage for the same journeys went down). You would expect that the total fuel usage would go down. However the rebound effect might kick in. This means that as people realise their cars are more efficient they can travel further per fuel cost, so they increase how far they travel and this increases the amount of fuel used. The paradox is that you have made cars more fuel efficient, but the total fuel consumed has gone up!
A similar phenomenon could happen with AI. As the more mundane tasks are automated with AI there is an expectation that time is available. And that time will need to be filled with higher order tasks as AI is taking care of the lower order work. Higher order work is naturally more thought intensive so we would then spend more time with critical thinking tasks.
Summary
- AI will replace lower order tasks
- This will free up our time - and create a vacuum that will be filled with higher order tasks
- This could lead to thinking more - not less with increased AI usage