A provocative question. But one that occupies me as an entrepreneur and employer.
Artificial intelligence opens up enormous possibilities. It makes people more productive and enables work for which time, money or resources used to be lacking.
At the same time, I ask myself: where will the competence come from in future that it takes to direct AI sensibly?
An experienced employee who has learned their craft from the ground up knows the business and its pitfalls. They have made mistakes and seen why seemingly good ideas fail in practice.
With this knowledge, they can give AI targeted instructions. They question results, correct them and keep working until the quality is right.
They understand what their digital helper produces.
But what about young people who still have to build up this experience?
If AI writes the concept, produces the analysis and programs the code: where do they learn to think for themselves, recognise connections and find mistakes?
How are they supposed to judge whether an answer is right if they lack the knowledge to check it? Do they notice when a solution sounds convincing but misses the problem?
A finished result is not yet a learning success
We learn by wrestling with a solution. Through trial and error, wrong turns and the experience that something works differently than expected.
It is precisely the laborious steps that often give us the understanding we fall back on later.
If we delegate these steps entirely to AI, we deliver results faster. Whether competence develops along the way is another question.
The human brain is a marvel. But independent thinking and professional judgement need practice. Anyone who is to develop these skills has to use them.
The responsibility lies with us, too
By “idiots” I mean the danger that we train people who deliver convincing results without understanding them.
We can hardly blame them later for a lack of judgement if today we mainly teach them to get finished as quickly as possible with AI.
That is why we, as employers and managers, need to take a close look:
- Do we let employees form their own assessment first?
- Do they have to explain AI results and justify them professionally?
- Are they able to make decisions and take responsibility themselves?
- Do experienced colleagues pass on their knowledge and their ways of thinking?
AI can be an excellent learning partner: asking questions, offering counter-arguments and prompting further thought. But we have to use it that way deliberately.
We must not pay for today’s productivity with tomorrow’s competence.
Experienced professionals have built their foundation over many years.
Young people need to learn their craft and develop their own judgement. So that they can direct AI – and recognise when they need to contradict it.
Where do we give young employees room to think for themselves – even when AI would be faster?
