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Research Overview: How Generative AI Affects Critical Thinking

A Microsoft Research (2025) explored how knowledge workers apply critical thinking when working with Generative AI (GenAI) and how AI is changing their habits. The survey included 319 professionals who described 936 work situations involving the use of GenAI.

Key Findings:

  • Only in 59% of cases do people genuinely engage critical thinking when using AI. Nearly half of the interactions occur without checking or analyzing the responses.
  • The higher the confidence in one's own skills and ability to evaluate the AI's result, the more critical thinking is applied.
  • The inverse is also true: the stronger the belief that AI "will handle it anyway," the less the person thinks for themselves.
  • Using AI reduces the amount of mental effort. People spend less time independently developing solutions and more time checking and integrating what the AI suggested.
  • Routine tasks are almost completely delegated to AI, minimizing the user's own analytical work.

The Risk of Losing Control

The overall conclusion of the research: Generative AI makes work faster, but simultaneously may weaken the habit of thinking independently. If a person completely relies on the model and does not form their own judgment, critical thinking skills can degrade over time.

This is not merely a matter of a "habit of thinking." When a specialist stops checking and analyzing AI responses (the 41% of interactions), they risk accepting subtle errors, inaccuracies, or biases that the AI may inadvertently integrate into its results. Critical thinking is our main "filter" against AI "hallucinations" and non-objective information.

Active Co-creation Instead of Passive Consumption

So, how can you maintain the speed that AI provides without losing mental sharpness? Researchers suggest the key is not to abandon AI, but to use it differently. Instead of asking AI for a "ready-made solution," specialists should use it as a "brainstorming partner" or a "trainer" for their own ideas.

This is why Ideation was created—not to replace your thinking, but to engage more of your own neural connections in the process. It doesn't just generate finished text; it prompts questions, offers alternative perspectives, and stimulates you to elaborate on details.

Give it a try. When you feel your brain has started working, you can return to the AI chat.