Don't Outsource Your Thinking: Just Because AI Can Do It Doesn't Mean It Should

 

This post was prompted — no AI pun intended — by a conversation with a colleague.

A reporting template I'd used for years had changed, and the Excel formulas I'd carefully built (as an accountant — "in Excel we trust!") were suddenly considered useless. My colleague suggested, "Can you just get AI to do this for you?"

My answer: "Yes, I could. But by working through this myself — verifying the process, checking the data, reasoning through each step — by the end of the process I'd have confidence. Confidence that the numbers are right, because I've gone through the process."

Speed Isn't the Same as Understanding

I get it, AI would probably get there faster — but speed can come at the expense of comprehension.

When you work through a problem, you gain an understanding of the why and how. That means if something breaks, changes, or needs explaining, you can deal with it with confidence.

The Delegation Principle

Any decent writing on delegation makes one thing clear: never delegate what is core to your role.

If your position carries responsibility or authority that only you hold, that cannot be transferred to someone else. And yes, that includes AI.

Think about it in practice:

• A parent should not delegate the raising of their children.
• A CEO should not delegate the vision or strategy of the organisation.
• A CFO should not delegate analysis of the organisation's financial health.
• A Pastor should not delegate the spiritual shepherding of their congregation.

The moment you hand off these essential tasks, you've handed off the role itself.

So Where Does AI Fit?

AI is a powerful tool. Used well, it can handle repetitive, lower-stakes tasks and free up mental bandwidth for the work that truly requires human judgement.

But the keyword is strategic. Be deliberate about what you delegate and what you don't.

Ask yourself:

• Is this task central to my role and responsibility?
• Would not understanding this process leave me exposed?
• If this goes wrong, can I explain what happened and why?

If the answer to any of those is yes — do it yourself.

The Risk Nobody Talks About

There's a quieter risk that doesn't get talked about enough: cognitive atrophy.

The less we reason through problems, the less capable we become at reasoning. Cognitive atrophy won't happen overnight — but continual over-reliance will gradually make you less sharp, less confident, and less capable.

The Bottom Line

To be clear: this isn't an argument against AI. It's an argument for being the person who understands their work deeply enough that they don't need a tool as a crutch.

Don't become cognitively lazy by delegating your authority, your process, and your responsibility to AI. The work that matters most is worth doing yourself.

Are you outsourcing your thinking — and losing something you can't get back?