The AI Hiking Trail or Highway

For the past several months, I've been asking myself and mentors the following question: 

As AI becomes increasingly capable of doing more of our work, what parts of our thinking should we intentionally protect?

As leaders, we've spent years trying to help our teams work more efficiently. Now, AI helps us remove friction, simplify processes, automate repetitive tasks, and eliminate unnecessary work because that removal creates space for work requiring deeper thinking, stronger judgment, creativity, and human connection. But I wonder if, in our pursuit of efficiency, we’ve removed the very struggle that helps us develop wisdom, judgment, and creativity. 

Recently I came across the following concept in Business Insider: The danger isn't that AI makes us less intelligent. It's that it may reduce the amount of thinking we do. 

This is critical because thinking is more than producing an answer. It is how we recognize patterns, navigate ambiguity, develop judgment, and connect ideas that didn't seem related just moments before. Consider this for a moment: 

• Imagine your brain as a hiking trail. Every time you wrestle with a difficult decision, lead a challenging conversation, write from a blank page, or solve a problem without immediately reaching for an answer, you're walking that trail again. Neuroscientists call this neuroplasticity. Each attempt strengthens the pathway, making it a little easier to access the next time. Over weeks, months, and years, those repeated walks become well-worn paths that shape how we think. 

• Now imagine someone building a highway around the mountain. You'll arrive much faster, and in many situations that's exactly what you should do. But if no one walks the trail anymore, what happens to the path? 

AI can become that highway. When used intentionally, AI creates extraordinary capacity. It accelerates research, summarizes information, organizes ideas, and handles work that doesn't require our deepest thought. The challenge is remembering that expertise is still developed through thinking, not receiving. 

I don't believe the answer is using less AI; I believe leaders should be exploring it aggressively. The better leadership question may be:

Where are we intentionally choosing to slow down?

Because many forms of thinking cannot be outsourced without consequence. 

As leaders, we're responsible for more than our own thinking. We shape the environments in which others think. We influence how quickly decisions are made, whether reflection is valued, how much cognitive load people carry, and whether every problem demands an immediate response. In organizations where everything feels urgent, are we unintentionally creating cultures where speed is mistaken for good thinking? 

Perhaps one of the greatest leadership capabilities in the years ahead will be leaning heavier into the coaching mindset to help teams determine what work that should be accelerated and what work (and thinking) should be protected. And, how to create space for that necessary deep thinking. 

Practice for the day: Before asking AI, spend five uninterrupted minutes walking the trail yourself. Wrestle with the problem and follow your own thinking. Then invite AI onto the trail with you, not to walk it for you.