Episode 862 - Don't Let AI Steal Your Thinking Reps

0:04 Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving. This is the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast with your host, Paul Falavolito.

0:16 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode 862. I want you to think about something that should concern every leader listening to this podcast. What happens when your employees become incredibly productive but slowly lose the ability to think for themselves because of AI? Think about that for a second. They can write reports faster. They can analyze information in seconds. They can create presentations, solve problems, and produce work that used to take hours. and everything looks fantastic until one day something happens that requires actual human judgment, something unexpected, something that doesn't fit neatly into an AI prompt, and suddenly that incredibly productive employee doesn't

1:16 know what to do because somewhere along the way they stopped exercising the most important muscle in their professional development, their ability to think. So today we're talking about something I call thinking reps and why protecting them might become one of the most important responsibilities leaders have in the age of artificial intelligence. So recently, IBM released a fascinating study about AI and the workforce. They surveyed over 8,000 employees and 1,500 human resource executives around the world, And one particular finding caught my attention. 60% of employees said they were concerned that AI was eroding their professional skills.

2:09 And guess which skill was identified most frequently? Critical thinking. And even more interesting, among the employees who were concerned about losing their skills, three out of four believed that some erosion had already started. Now, those are employee perceptions. They aren't proof that AI is making everyone less capable.

2:35 But when that many people are concerned about losing their ability to think independently, leaders should absolutely be paying attention because we are entering a period where two things that used to go hand in hand may begin separating, productivity and capability. And I want every leader listening to understand the significance of that statement. For decades, we've measured employee performance through productivity. How much work did they accomplish? How quickly did they complete their assignments? How efficiently did they solve problems? And now AI has entered the workplace and completely changed that equation. An employee who previously needed four hours to complete an assignment might now finish it in

3:26 20 minutes. That's impressive, but here's the question I want you to ask. Did that employee become more capable, or did the technology become more capable? Because those are two very different things. And if you're responsible for developing employees, training future supervisors, or preparing the next generation of executives, You need to understand the difference, and I'll give you an example. Imagine you have a young supervisor who encounters a difficult employee situation. An employee is consistently showing up late, co-workers are complaining, and morale is beginning to suffer. The supervisor opens an AI application and types in, how should I handle an employee who is consistently late? and negatively

4:19 affecting team morale. And within seconds, AI produces a beautiful response. It explains how to approach the employee. It suggests talking points and recommends a course of action. The supervisor follows the instructions. The problem solved, right? Maybe. But now imagine that supervisor encounters another employee problem, and another, and another.

4:45 And every single time, the first thing they do is ask AI what they should do. And eventually that supervisor might become very good at following recommendations, but have they developed the judgment required to lead people? Have they learned how to recognize patterns in employee behavior? Have they developed the confidence to make difficult decisions? Have they learned how to evaluate the consequences of their actions? Or Have they simply become very good at asking questions? This is where leadership development gets interesting because every time someone allows AI to do their thinking before they've attempted it themselves, they may be giving away an opportunity to develop their own judgment.

5:37 And those opportunities matter. Think about physical exercise. If you want to become stronger, you have to lift weights. You have to challenge your muscles. You have to experience resistance. Now imagine walking into a gym and having a machine lift every weight for you. You'd finish your workout in record time. You wouldn't break a sweat. But six months later, would you be any stronger? Of course not. Because the machine did all the work. And that's exactly what I'm concerned about with AI. We're building technology that can perform incredible things. intellectual tasks. And if we're careless about how we use it, we may unintentionally remove the very experiences that develop capable employees and strong leaders. Those experiences are

6:29 your thinking reps and leaders need to protect them. Now, I want to be very clear about something. I use AI. I teach a course called Leadership in AI. I believe this technology has tremendous potential to to improve organizations, increase productivity, and help leaders make better decisions. I want employees using these tools. I want organizations taking advantage of the opportunities.

6:56 And I also want people developing the ability to think independently because the value of AI increases dramatically when the person using it understands the problem that they're trying to solve. And here's an example from my world in EMS. When we train a new paramedic, we want that individual developing strong clinical judgment. We want them learning how to assess a patient, recognize symptoms, evaluate information, and make appropriate treatment decisions.

7:30 Now imagine a paramedic who could instantly receive an AI-generated recommendation for every patient encounter. That technology might eventually become a valuable clinical support tool provided it's properly validated and used within established medical protocols. But the paramedic still needs to understand what's happening. They need to recognize when information is incomplete. They need to recognize when something doesn't make sense.

8:02 And they need the ability to make sound decisions when technology isn't available because the patient laying on the stretcher is depending on the person providing care. And that person needs to know what they're doing. The same principle applies to a hotel manager handling an angry guest. It applies to a restaurant supervisor dealing with a staffing shortage. It applies to a corporate executive making a major financial decision.

8:33 The technology can provide information. The human being still needs to understand the situation. And that's where leaders come in. So I want to give you a simple leadership practice you can start using immediately. Before your employees ask AI for an answer, have them develop their own recommendation. That's it.

8:57 It sounds incredibly simple, and I believe it could become one of the most valuable leadership development habits that you introduce into your organization. And here's how it works. An employee approaches you with a problem. Instead of immediately solving it, you ask, what do you think we should do? And let them explain their reasoning. Let them identify the problem.

9:21 Let them work through the possible consequences. Then encourage them to use AI to challenge their thinking. Ask AI what they might have overlooked. Ask it to identify weaknesses in their recommendation. Ask it to offer additional perspectives. Now, You've created an opportunity for learning. The employee develops an initial position.

9:46 The technology provides additional information. And the employee evaluates that information before making a final recommendation. That's a very powerful way to develop judgment. And I would encourage leadership to make this a normal part of employee development, especially when working through training scenarios and decisions where there is time to evaluate different options. And another thing I want you to start doing is asking employees to explain their work.

10:17 If someone hands you a beautifully written report, ask them about the conclusions. If someone presents a recommendation, ask them why they believe it's the best option. If someone uses AI to analyze information, ask them how they verified the results and pay attention to their answers because the ability to produce a professional-looking document doesn't automatically demonstrate an understanding of the information inside it. I think we're going to see more of this in the coming years. Employees producing incredible amounts of work. Organizations celebrating increased productivity. Executives looking at dashboards filled with impressive numbers. And somewhere underneath all of those numbers, leaders are going to have to determine

11:07 whether their people are actually becoming better at their jobs. Research from Microsoft, published in August 2026, examined generative AI use in workplace productivity applications. The researchers found that heavier AI users showed increased activity in productivity-related applications. They also cautioned organizations to pay attention to interpersonal communication in the sharing of information. And that's important because leadership involves understanding people, exchanging ideas and making decisions that affect others. And those skills require practice, which brings me to another concern. What happens to the next generation of leaders if they never experience the struggle of figuring things out? Think about your

12:04 own career. Some of the most valuable leadership lessons you've learned probably came from situations where you didn't immediately know the answer. You had to investigate. You had to ask questions. You had to evaluate your options. Sometimes you made the wrong decisions, and sometimes you learned something that changed the way you led for the rest of your career. Those experiences helped develop your judgment. Now imagine removing most of those experiences from someone's professional development. Imagine giving every new supervisor immediate access to a tool that provides recommendations before they've had an opportunity to develop their own. What kind of leaders will we produce 10 years from now? That's

12:53 a question worth asking. And I believe the answer depends heavily on what today's leaders do about it. We need to make critical thinking an intentional part of employee development. We need to create opportunities for people to work through problems. We need to encourage employees to explain their reasoning. And we need to make sure technology is helping people become more capable over time. So here's something else to consider.

13:24 What happens when AI gives your employees the wrong answer? Because that will happen. AI can generate information that sounds incredibly convincing and still be completely wrong. incorrect. And if the person receiving that information doesn't understand the subject, how will they recognize the mistake? That's why I believe critical thinking may become even more valuable as AI becomes more powerful.

13:54 The better these systems become at producing answers, the more important it becomes for humans to evaluate those answers. And that's a leadership responsibilities. Your employees need permission to question technology. They need the confidence to challenge recommendations and they need enough knowledge and experience to recognize when something doesn't add up.

14:17 So here's my challenge to every leader listening today. Take a look at how AI is being used inside of your organization. Look at the work your employees are producing and start paying closer attention to the thinking behind that work. When you're coaching someone, give them opportunities to work through problems before introducing AI. When you're developing future leaders, make independent judgment part of their training. And when you're evaluating performance, pay attention to how well employees understand the work they're completing.

14:56 Because the organizations that succeed with AI will need people who can use the technology effectively. effectively while maintaining strong professional judgment. And that judgment needs to be developed. It needs to be practiced. It needs thinking reps. So I want to leave you with this thought. Artificial intelligence can make you faster. It can make you more productive. And it can quietly make you dependent on if you stop exercising your ability to think. So to every leader out there, here's your responsibility. Don't measure whether your people can get the answer. Find out whether they understand the answer and protect those thinking reps. This has been the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.