Is AI ruining our skills? Early results are in — and they’re not good

  • Mariana Lenharo

Mariana Lenharo is a reporter for Nature in New York City.

Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar

  • [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=Is+AI+ruining+our+skills%3F+Early+results+are+in+%E2%80%94+and+they%E2%80%99re+not+good https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-026-01947-1)
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • [Whatsapp](https://wa.me/?text=Is+AI+ruining+our+skills%3F+Early+results+are+in+%E2%80%94+and+they%E2%80%99re+not+good https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fd41586-026-01947-1)
  • X

Physicians’ own ability to spot pre-cancerous growths during colonoscopies declined after they had grown accustomed to using an artificial-intelligence tool to help with the task. Credit: Gabrielle Voinot/Look at Sciences/Science Photo Library

As more professionals begin to rely on artificial-intelligence tools in their work, could their hard-earned skills atrophy?

Their fear might be justified. Evidence suggests that AI-driven ‘deskilling’ is starting to happen in medicine, computer science and other fields. Researchers are now discussing how to preserve important human expertise in the age of AI.

“Just being aware that this phenomenon exists hopefully provokes some self-reflection about which skills people want to maintain and which they’re willing to outsource” to AI tools, says Kevin Crowston, an information scientist at Syracuse University in New York.

Spoiled by AI?

Once physicians began using it, their performance dropped significantly whenever the system was unavailable. During the three-month period before the AI tool was introduced, the specialists found at least one adenoma during 28.4% of colonoscopies. During the three-month period after the tool was introduced, the adenoma detection rate for colonoscopies performed without AI assistance decreased to 22.4%.

Google AI better than human doctors at diagnosing rashes from pictures

The findings, published last October in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, suggest that even highly skilled professionals might get worse at tasks that their job requires as they become more dependent on AI tools, says Robert Wachter, a physician at the University of California, San Francisco, who is the author of a book on how AI tools are transforming health care. The study authors say that continuous exposure to such tools can cause clinicians to become “less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance”.

Co-author Yuichi Mori, a physician-researcher at the University of Oslo, says that more studies are needed to confirm the phenomenon. But people who use AI tools should be aware that they risk losing some of their skills, he adds. “There is no established solution against deskilling right now. It should be a very hot research topic in the next decade.”

No lesson learnt

Enjoying our latest content?

Log in or create an account to continue

  • Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team
  • Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01947-1

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 22 June 2026: An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect affiliation for Tapani Rinta-Kahila. This has now been corrected.

References

  • Wolters Kluwer. Patients, Doctors, and Nurses on AI: Similar Tools, Different Pathways, One Destination (Wolters Kluwer, 2026).
  • Budzyń, K. et al. Lancet Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 10, 896–903 (2025). Article

PubMed Google Scholar

  • Shen, J. H. & Tamkin, A. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.20245 (2026).
  • Rinta-Kahila, T., Penttinen, E., Salovaara, A. & Soliman, W. In Proc. 51st Hawaii Int. Conf. System Sci. (ed. Bui, T. X.) 5244–5253 (HICSS, 2018).

Download references

Reprints and permissions

Related Articles

Subjects

Latest on

  • [A hidden predictor of sudden cardiac death uncovered by deep learning

News & Views 24 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01806-z)

  • [Will AI spark a scientific renaissance — or a diffuse monoculture?

World View 22 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01954-2)

  • [Mathematicians are developing rules for AI use — other fields should follow

Editorial 16 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01881-2)

  • [China’s LineShine just topped the global supercomputer ranking: what you need to know

News 25 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02047-w)

  • [Silicon Valley’s vision for global AI is flawed: each country needs its own blueprint

World View 23 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01951-5)

  • [A 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer with all-to-all connectivity

Article 17 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10676-4)

  • [Academic success still assumes uninterrupted careers

Correspondence 23 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01971-1)

  • [Make science more reliable: study people as they go about their lives

Comment 22 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01957-z)

  • [World Cup: science must tackle footballers’ mental and physical health

Comment 11 JUN 26](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01865-2)

Jobs

If you are interested in developing and using cutting-edge concepts, join us in our ongoing research training group. Regensburg (Stadt), Bayern (DE) University of Regensburg (UR)

We invite applications from visionary, internationally recognised scientific leaders with strong management skills Budapest (HU) Hungarian Research Network

We invite applications from visionary, internationally recognised scientific leaders with strong management skills Sopron (HU) Hungarian Research Network

The HUN-REN Hungarian Research Network invites applications for the position of Director General of the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre Szeged (HU) Hungarian Research Network

Senior Scientist (all genders) at TU Wien Vienna (AT) Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien)

Related Articles

Subjects

Sign up to Nature Briefing

An essential round-up of science news, opinion and analysis, delivered to your inbox every weekday.