To what extent are you in danger of losing hard-earned skills as you work with AI?

“Use it or lose it” applies to your brain on AI. Your brain is not keeping a skill it’s not using. If you doubt that, try to remember everything you learned to do years ago, stopped doing, and now have a hard time picking up again. For example, how about speaking conversational Spanish or French? Playing the piano? Remembering phone numbers?

Already, a number of peer-reviewed research studies, which are listed at the end of this new McKinsey article, are showing the downsides of delegating too much to AI. So far the biggest problems are declines in critical thinking skills and creativity, reduced working memory, and greater difficulty learning new information.  

These problems are more likely to happen to those using AI as a full-service tool rather than as a more limited strategic thought partner. Nonetheless, all of us should pay attention to these research results.

The results are troubling yet not surprising, considering how the human brain works. The brain has limited capacity and tires easily, generally after 90 minutes of deep thinking. (We can recharge by taking well-designed breaks, as explained later in Principle 2. However, for many this is a hard habit to build since it’s counterintuitive to traditional work styles.) Our default tends to be offloading tasks, especially ones that we don’t like, so we can conserve energy for other activities we prefer doing.

Fortunately, the next frontier of AI transformation is introducing systemic actions to protect and maintain brain health  – at least among those who are aware of the potential brain harm and are motivated to act.

For example, McKinsey’s new article, Five principles for designing brain-powered organizations (which also includes the research citations), sets forth practical guidelines for redesigning work in the AI age. These guidelines are all about rethinking how to work differently, instead of simply adding AI to existing work processes.

And as an aside, kudos to McKinsey for this article, which provides much more useful content in a few pages compared to the mammoth January 2026 report The Human Advantage: Stronger Brains in the Age of AI developed by the McKinsey Health Institute in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

However, this McKinsey article is intended for those designing and assigning work, rather than doing the work. That’s why I’m explaining the points of the principles as well as providing suggested fixes you can use to work to your brain’s strengths.

As context, the article’s 5 principles are designed to help individuals maximize the use of their brain’s central executive network. This is the network your brain engages when doing detailed thinking. It has a limited amount of cognitive processing capacity before it tires.

Principle 1: Calibrate for cognitive load: Design what the brain is asked to do. This refers to the total amount of mental effort you need to apply to do your work. If AI starts doing all of your administrative tasks and leaves you with the higher-level, higher-pressure tasks, your brain could tire faster. And if you don’t realize how tired you’re getting, you could make some bad decisions.

Suggested fix: To manage this demand side of the work, be more intentional about how you plan your workday and work week. For example, on Friday or Monday, identify your priorities for the upcoming week, such as the three highest-cognitive-cost choices that you need to accomplish. Next, protect time on your calendar when you think you’ll be at your sharpest to work on them – and make sure these choices are still a priority for you and your organization.

Principle 2: Protect cognitive capacity: Protect what the brain has to give. This refers to the supply of cognitive processing capacity that you have at any one time. As explained earlier, you can deplete your capacity after 90 minutes. You need time to recover, rather than running to another meeting or throwing yourself into a different project that requires brainpower.

Suggested fix: You can recover by doing physical activity, such as stretching, moving or walking; stepping outside and breathing fresh air; closing your eyes and relaxing, doing some mindfulness activities; talking with others; or doing nothing and letting your mind wander.

Principle 3: Enable focus: Create conditions for good judgment. Our attention spans keep getting shorter. We’re frequently shifting our attention, switching tasks, responding to interruptions or even interrupting ourselves. We’re not going to get the value of our AI partnerships if we can’t concentrate deeply on what AI has produced for us.

Suggested fix: Experiment with finding a good space, time, and other conditions for you to do your deep thinking. Also, if you’re collaborating with others, decide on “rules of engagement” to help you combine individual deep dives on the material with group explorations, discussions and action plans.

Principle 4: Build adaptive brain skills: Protect the muscle or it atrophies. This acknowledges the dangers of offloading to AI and then discovering you’ve lost some of your cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, recall or ease of learning or all of them.

Suggested fix:  Work with AI as a partner or even better as your coach, not letting it lead you. For instance, brainstorm without AI before asking AI for ideas. Also, ask AI to review your work and critique it. And make an effort to develop skills that AI cannot replace, such as critical thinking, communication, emotional regulation, stress management, and team collaboration. This includes making sure you’re using AI for things that matter rather than doing outdated work with AI.

Principle 5: Drive “brain-positive” environments: Shape the culture for positive outcomes.  This is about ensuring the work culture centers on humans, not AI.  All  humans need to feel psychologically safe, especially for asking questions and accessing   resources and tools that support their brain – and human – health.

Suggested fix: Take time to think carefully about what you and your team members need to work well in this AI age. And be sure to keep experimenting, especially considering the speed at which AI keeps changing. And above all, respect and appreciate your brain.

In closing: If you have questions about any of this, ask me. I’ll be glad to answer as well as suggest appropriate resources. Meanwhile, make sure you safeguard your brain health as you work with AI. This means partnering with AI strategically rather than using  AI as a full-service tool.