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

Emerging research suggests AI tools are causing measurable skill degradation in professionals who rely on them. A study of Polish endoscopists found adenoma detection rates dropped from 28.4% to 22.4% when AI assistance was unavailable after they had grown accustomed to it. An Anthropic-designed randomized controlled trial with 52 software engineers also investigated whether coding skills erode with AI assistant use. Surveys show 70-77% of healthcare workers fear over-reliance on AI. Researchers are calling for more studies and urging professionals to reflect on which skills they want to preserve versus outsource.