Delegating judgment and the erosion of agency in the human-AI relationship

The article analyzes the transition from automating simple tasks to delegating judgment to AI systems, which leads to the erosion of human agency. The author points to the phenomenon of cognitive offloading and the risk of deskilling—the loss of key cognitive competencies as a result of using them independently less frequently. This problem does not stem from laziness, but from adaptation to a new structure of cognitive costs, where short-term efficiency conflicts with long-term intellectual capital. Particular attention is paid to the competency paradox: while current experts treat AI as an extension of knowledge, new generations may lose the ability to independently oversee technology, which becomes a critical challenge in fields such as medicine.