Not job loss, AI's biggest danger is something much worse. Why doctors and techies could be the first victims, research finds

Artificial intelligence has become a regular part of work across industries. From helping doctors detect medical conditions to assisting software engineers with coding tasks, AI tools are making work faster and often more efficient. Companies and organizations continue to invest heavily in these technologies, seeing them as a way to boost productivity and reduce workloads. However, as AI becomes more deeply embedded in daily work, researchers are beginning to ask whether constant reliance on these tools could come at a cost.

A growing number of studies suggest that depending too heavily on AI may gradually weaken the skills people once developed through years of training and experience. Experts say the issue, often described as "deskilling," is emerging in fields ranging from healthcare to software development.

"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, said Kevin Crowston, an information scientist at Syracuse University.

Signs of Skill Erosion in Healthcare

Concerns about deskilling are particularly noticeable in medicine, where AI tools are increasingly being used to support clinical decisions.

A recent survey of US healthcare workers found that 70% of nurses and 77% of physicians worry about losing professional skills because of over-reliance on AI systems.

Those concerns are backed by research published in The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The study involved experienced physicians in Poland who used an AI system that could identify adenomas, a type of precancerous intestinal lesion, during colonoscopies.

Before the AI tool was introduced, doctors detected at least one adenoma in 28.4% of procedures. After becoming accustomed to the technology, their detection rate during procedures performed without AI assistance fell to 22.4%.

The researchers suggested that continuous exposure to AI tools can leave clinicians "less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance".

Yuichi Mori, a physician-researcher at the University of Oslo and co-author of the study, said, "There is no established solution against deskilling right now. It should be a very hot research topic in the next decade."

Similar Trends Emerging in Coding

Researchers are seeing comparable patterns in software development.

A study conducted by AI company Anthropic asked 52 software engineers to complete a coding task. While all participants could access online resources, only half were encouraged to use an AI assistant.

When later tested on what they had learned, those who used AI scored significantly lower. The AI-assisted group averaged 50%, compared with 67% among participants who completed the task without AI help.

The findings suggested that while AI users were able to complete the work successfully, they struggled more with questions that required them to diagnose coding errors and explain underlying concepts.

According to Crowston, "Now you have this very odd disconnect between performance and learning. People can perform at a pretty high level, because they're basically borrowing skills from the AI, but they are not developing those skills themselves."

Balancing Efficiency and Expertise

Experts note that technology has replaced certain human skills before. GPS navigation, for example, reduced people's need to memorize routes. But researchers argue that generative AI is different because it automates tasks involving reasoning, interpretation and decision-making.

Tapani Rinta-Kahila, an information systems researcher at the University of Queensland, believes the long-term impact could be significant if younger professionals miss out on foundational learning experiences.

"Next generations of programmers may not understand the foundations of coding that well at all, if they lack the hands-on experience," he said. "The same goes for many other knowledge-intensive professions, such as accounting and law."