I’m going to start with a confession. Recently I had a client meeting and turned on AI Companion. The notes that followed were clear, well-structured, with actions listed and themes summarised. Yet something important was missing.
The meeting was intense, emotional, railing like a rollercoaster, with highs and lows. It was in-depth and heartfelt, challenging and connecting. It enabled insight to change, and we both left satisfied from the encounter. If you’d asked, I would have been able to share with you what was really important from that experience. The AI notes would not.
As we increasingly rely on AI to capture, interpret, and even shape our interactions, are we at risk of diminishing or losing key human skills?
Cognitive and emotional atrophy and apathy
Recent research [1, see references] has shown that over-reliance or offloading to AI is impacting the effectiveness of our thinking. Excessive reliance on AI to generate material, create ideas, analyse information has been shown to lead to ‘cognitive atrophy’ where there is decline in memory, as well as critical and creative thinking [2].
Leaders deliberately relying on AI for decisions, interpretations or communication may unconsciously find themselves at risk of not just poorer decisions but the gradual erosion of awareness, good judgement and relational sensitivity.
When perceived effort can be reduced or offloaded, the unconscious harm is that it may reduce our willingness to reflect, challenge, and engage deeply. What appears as efficiency on the surface, can quietly become disengagement and apathy underneath.
Research is also discovering that when interaction is filtered through tools, with little reflection on the emotional experience, emotional intelligence skills can weaken. Reduced face-to-face human interaction leads to measurable decline in being able to read emotional cues [3]. This risks gradual weakening or atrophy of emotional awareness and empathic capability from underuse.
The ease of communication being assisted, filtered or even generated, may also reduce the willingness to engage emotionally. What begins as efficiency can gradually become emotional apathy or distancing.
This creates a subtle but important risk for leaders, with a paradox emerging. What starts as a conscious decision to use AI can gradually become an unconscious default, shaping your capacity to think and interact effectively.
You may be consciously choosing efficiency, while unconsciously limiting your potential.
The opportunity for increasing potential and human flourishing
This doesn’t need to be viewed purely as risk. The capabilities that are becoming easier for other leaders to erode, can be taken as an opportunity for other leaders to intentionally develop.
Great leaders will be the ones with skills of awareness, can regulate attention and emotions, be able to relate to others, understand their own thinking and act with meaning and direction. Research in neuroscience demonstrates that these crucial elements of effective leadership are not fixed traits, but skills that can be developed.
Importantly, these skills also encapsulate core elements of flourishing: awareness, connection, insight and sense of purpose. Studies have shown that practices which develop attentional awareness, emotional connection, and reflective insight can lead to improvements in wellbeing, decision-making, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. In leadership contexts, these same capabilities are consistently linked to better judgment, stronger relationships, and more sustained performance.
Leadership potential and flourishing therefore can be intentionally developed or unconsciously deliberately weakened. And there is a bonus, because flourishing is not an individual experience. The way you think, feel, and relate to others has measurable impact on those around you, meaning your improved awareness and connection can positively influence the people around you.
In my work as a performance psychologist, training and supporting leaders to function effectively in high-performance environments, a consistent pattern emerges from their stories and my research. Those that deliberately train these capacities – learning to notice their thinking and emotional responses, engaging more empathically and compassionately with others, have effective reflective practices, and act with greater clarity of purpose – are better able to navigate moments of pressure and complexity.
They do not avoid technology, but neither do they offload these core human capabilities to it either. In an AI-enabled world, this may become the real differentiator. Great leaders will have developed the skills to think critically, relate with others and know how to act effectively when it matters most.
So, I leave you with a question. AI will shape your leadership. However, are you unconsciously limiting or intentionally expanding your potential to think, connect and flourish?
References
[1] Pearson, J., Dror, I. E., Jayes, E., Whordley, G.-R., Mason, G., & Nightingale, S. (2026). Examining human reliance on artificial intelligence in decision making. Scientific Reports, 16(1), 5345. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-34983-y
[2] Risko, E. F., & Gilbert, S. J. (2016). Cognitive offloading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 676–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.07.002
[3] Uhls, Y. T., Michikyan, M., Morris, J., Garcia, D., Small, G. W., Zgourou, E., & Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Five days at outdoor education camp without screens improves preteen skills with nonverbal emotion cues. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 387–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.036
About Stuart
Stuart Munro – CPsychol – HCPC Registered Sport Psychologist is a Chartered Psychologist and HCPC-registered Sport Psychologist with over 25 years’ experience in high-performance environments. He works with elite athletes, Olympic/Paralympic programs, and senior leaders, helping them develop the psychological skills to think clearly, perform under pressure, and lead effectively. He has spent 10 years of research and applied work creating the Munro Performance Empowerment Program®. This is a unique framework that helps people build the skills and capabilities that enable psychological empowerment, self-awareness, resilience, self-regulation, emotional intelligence, and sustained performance under pressure.