GenAI won’t replace you. But it may replace the skills that make you human.

In February 2025, Ella Stapleton opened lecture notes posted by her Northeastern University professor and froze.

Buried in the document was a ChatGPT prompt: "Expand on all areas. Be more detailed and specific."

The rest revealed more red flags—distorted images, robotic phrasing, and generic bullet points. Her professor had banned students from using GenAI, then quietly used it himself to create their course materials.

Stapleton filed a formal complaint and requested an $8,000 tuition refund. As The New York Times reported, she’s part of a growing group of students who aren’t just calling out the hypocrisy, they’re making a financial argument:

“We’re paying, often quite a lot, to be taught by humans, not by an algorithm we could use for free.”

Her case reflects a deeper tension emerging across workplaces: When does AI assistance become AI dependence? And what happens to our human judgment when AI machines do our thinking?

Quick Takeaways

  • GenAI makes work faster but also flatter. Its output looks polished but often lacks the depth and thought that comes from our critical thinking.
  • GenAI use without disclosure erodes trust. People expect to know when a human is present, especially in moments that require empathy, insight, or fairness.
  • Use our GenAI Self-Audit Toolkit to stay sharp. These 5 prompts help you spot when GenAI is doing too much. And when you need to re-engage your human skills.

Promise and Perils of GenAI Augmentation 

GenAI augmentation means using AI to support and amplify your human strengths, by taking over routine tasks so you can focus on deeper, higher-order thinking.

But over-augmentation happens when reliance on GenAI goes too far, when we offload so much that we stop practicing the very skills it was meant to enhance.

We’ve embraced GenAI as a productivity partner. And for overloaded professionals, including teachers, it genuinely helps. As The New York Times reported, educators are using GenAI to draft slides, generate feedback, and manage coursework amid rising demands and shrinking time.

But here’s what we rarely admit: The more we let GenAI handle, the less often we show up fully as ourselves.

GenAI helps us offload tasks, and that’s part of its promise. But if we’re not careful, we risk outsourcing something deeper: the very human capacities that make our work meaningful --  

  • Curiosity – asking questions no one else is asking
  • Connection – showing up with presence, not just response
  • Conscience – knowing when to pause, not just proceed

These aren’t poetic losses. They’re functional. And they’re foundational to human-centered leadership, learning, and trust.

The Hidden Cost of Seamless Efficiency

GenAI excels at removing friction—the pauses, struggles, and false starts that feel inefficient. But friction is where human judgment develops.

When you draft from scratch, you don't just make decisions. You wrestle with them. You revise tone, weigh what's missing, and imagine what readers need.

This isn't just critical thinking; it's empathy in motion.

AI-generated drafts skip that struggle. Everything looks polished, sounds smart, and gets done faster. But speed isn't the same as growth, and efficiency isn't the same as insight.

Research published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications found that AI dependence can lead to "a decline in educational quality and a lack of personal development" as people lose interest in developing new skills.

A separate study published in Smart Learning Environments warns that "overreliance on AI occurs when users accept AI-generated recommendations without question, leading to errors in task performance".

We're not just offloading tasks—we're outsourcing the cognitive processes that make us better at our jobs.

Why Moral Deskilling Matters

Fortune journalist Jeremy Kahn coined the term "moral deskilling" to describe what happens when AI machines make decisions for us, and we gradually stop making them ourselves. Like muscle atrophy, but for ethical judgment.

This creates what we call "dual deskilling"—scenarios where everyone relies on AI, and no one engages their full human capacity:

  • In classrooms: Teachers paste AI-generated comments on student essays, students use AI for writing, and genuine learning disappears.
  • In hiring: Hiring managers approve AI resume rankings without reading applications, applicants use AI to craft responses, and no one actually evaluates fit or potential.
  • In healthcare: AI suggests treatment paths while doctors lose practice in diagnostic reasoning, and patients receive technically correct but emotionally vacant care.

The risk isn't AI automation. It's the quiet disappearance of human judgment from decisions that shape people's lives.

 You’re Invited! Join our Free AI & Future of Work Webinar & Responsible AI Starter Course

GenAI Use Self-Audit: 5 Prompts to Strengthen Your Human Skills

 The solution isn't abandoning AI. It's using it intentionally.

Based on our Human Skills Playbook for an AI-Driven World: 5 Human Skills AI Won’t Replace, this toolkit helps you notice when GenAI is doing too much. And you’re doing too little. It enables you to recognize when AI assistance crosses into AI dependence.

These aren’t “soft” skills. They’re your human superpowers. And they fade when GenAI becomes your default.

Use these prompts when work feels too easy, too polished, or too fast. That's your signal to re-engage your human edge.

1. Curiosity: The Drive to Explore

  • If You’re Saying: “This saved me so much time. I barely had to think.”
    You defaulted to GenAI and skipped the mental engagement that develops curiosity and deepens learning.
  • Self-Prompt: “What would I have discovered if I'd created this from scratch?”
  • Why It Matters: Curiosity drives innovation. When we accept AI's first answer, we stop asking the questions that lead to breakthrough insights.

2. Creativity: Connecting the Unexpected

  •  If You’re Saying: “This looks exactly like something I would’ve made, just cleaner.”
    You accepted GenAI’s draft without pushing your own boundaries.
  • Self-Prompt: “Does this surprise me, or just satisfy me?"
  • Why It Matters: True creativity lives in risk and tension, not polish. AI excels at sophisticated recombination but struggles with genuine novelty.

3. Critical Thinking: Questioning Assumptions

  • If You’re Saying: “It sounded authoritative. I didn't question it."
    You trusted GenAI’s fluency without checking its logic or sources.
  • Self-Prompt: "What is this confidently assuming, and what crucial context might it be missing?"
  • Why It Matters: GenAI can hallucinate with perfect fluency. Critical thinking means distinguishing confidence from accuracy, especially when the stakes are high.

4. Adaptability: Staying Capable Under Pressure

  • If You’re Saying: “I don’t really do that task anymore, the AI handles it.”
    You’ve become dependent on GenAI and may be losing confidence in your own abilities.
  • Self-Prompt: “If this AI failed tomorrow, could I step in competently and confidently?"
  • Why It Matters: True adaptability isn't about having better tools—it's about remaining capable when tools fail or contexts change unexpectedly.

5. Empathy & Ethical Judgment: The Human Pause

  • If You’re Saying: "It sounds professional, but something feels off."
    You sense something is missing in the tone or meaning, but aren’t sure what.
  • Self-Prompt: "Would I say this to someone face-to-face, and would they feel genuinely heard?"
  • Why It Matters: GenAI can simulate empathy, but can’t feel it. It can also engage in AI flattery. Ethical judgment requires the uniquely human ability to recognize when efficiency conflicts with genuine empathy.

Use This Like a Compass, Not a Checklist

You don't need every prompt every time. But when AI makes things feel effortless, ask yourself: Is it also making me less engaged?

Use this like a compass, not a checklist. Not to mark off what’s done, but to stay oriented to what matters.

Your skills don't vanish overnight—they erode in quiet moments when you stop using them. Those moments matter most because they're when you have the choice to stay sharp or drift into dependence.

Over to You

Which of the five human skills are you most committed to keeping strong, even as GenAI gets smarter?

The future belongs not to those who use AI best, but to those who remain most human while doing so.

Found This Valuable?

Forward this newsletter to your team using GenAI or share our subscription link: https://skills4good.ai/newsletter/

Together, we’re building a future where GenAI supports humanity, not replaces it.

Stay curious and committed to AI 4 Good!

Josephine and the Skills4Good AI Team


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