The real risk of AI
AI makes everything faster and easier. But somewhere along the way, we might be trading convenience for something way more important than time.
We have all heard stories where AI compromised someone’s job. Sometimes not because AI replaced the role directly, but because not using it became a liability.
A clear example came from Shopify, when its CEO made it explicit that teams were expected to use AI as part of their daily work, and that requesting more resources without proving AI couldn’t do the job was no longer acceptable.
Whatever the case may be, I believe the real danger of AI isn’t losing your job. It’s losing your brain.
When skill actually mattered
Think back to a time when we didn’t have computers in our pockets. We managed to do plenty of stuff back then. Not only because we didn’t spend 25% of our day staring at a screen, but because we actually had the skill to do things.
Achieving a task takes both will and skill.
When you miss one of them, the task ain’t going nowhere.
If you’re anything like me, you can navigate anywhere you need to go. But there’s always one dependency: a Maps app. Google’s, Apple’s, or whatever your poison is.
So how did we become so dependent on these devices and apps that we can’t even handle tasks we could easily do just 10 years ago?
Convenience is a hell of a drug
Some say it’s convenience. Others say it’s live traffic data, which is supposedly essential nowadays. But the truth is, we didn’t have traffic data back then and we still managed to move around cities just fine. Even between cities when going on vacation.
Remember when there was no internet and our parents still managed to book a vacation house for a full week? No Booking. No Airbnb. Barely any internet at all. Where did they even find those places? I have no idea. But that’s not the point.
The point is: it was perfectly possible to live without apps and constant connectivity. Today? Apparently not.
AI everywhere, thinking nowhere
Now we’re living in an AI-for-everything era. Even the smallest task, like writing a commit message, can be offloaded to AI so you don’t have to think about it.
Writing a blog post like this one? AI can proofread it, rewrite parts, suggest improvements, or generate entire sections.
Need an image for a social post that people will look at for half a second and never question if it’s real? AI’s got you covered. CGI doesn’t even feel like the right word anymore. In fact, for a very long time.
Pretty much everything we do on a computer can benefit from AI intervention. And to be clear, I’m not pretending I don’t use it. I do. A lot.
I just don’t know if it’s the best way.
Jobs AI won’t touch (yet)
There are plenty of jobs AI can’t really touch right now. Mechanics. Nurses. Construction workers. Farmers. AI can help with information, planning, or diagnostics, but it won’t do the work for you.
I’m a web developer. I build websites. Websites are just files with code. Code is just digital words. And with native web tech like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, AI can already write those words extremely well.
You can describe a site and have AI generate the structure, the layout, even the logic. Entire apps can be built this way.
But here’s the thing…
We were never paid to type
Our job was never about typing code. We are thinkers. We solve problems. Code is just the medium.
You weren’t hired because you know how to use a keyboard. You were hired because you know how to reason through very specific problems and turn vague ideas into working systems.
AI, as it exists today, is built on what already exists. It doesn’t actually solve new problems. It predicts answers based on past ones.
If you invent a brand new programming language tomorrow and ask AI how to use it, chances are you’ll hit hallucinations. Confident answers. Completely wrong. Convincing enough to fool you.
The real risk
Right now, AI mostly makes our jobs easier. We can do more in less time. Sometimes we can even do things we don’t fully understand yet. That’s incredibly powerful.
But that’s also the scary part.
If AI becomes accurate enough, helpful enough, and consistent enough, we might quickly stop thinking altogether. Not because we can’t. But because we don’t have to. Just like our memory fades when we don’t use it.
That’s when we should really start worrying.
Takeaways
AI taking jobs is the loud fear, but it’s not the most dangerous one. The quiet risk is letting AI think for us, little by little, until we forget how to do it.
Tools are meant to help skill, not replace it. When thinking becomes optional, skill starts to disappear. And once skill is gone, will won’t be enough to get anything done.
