Are We Becoming Better with AI, or Just Faster?

Artificial Intelligence is becoming a normal part of our everyday work and learning. We use AI to write emails, generate social media content, create presentations, write and debug code, analyse information, summarise documents, brainstorm ideas, and even learn completely new topics.

There is no doubt that AI can make many tasks significantly faster. A task that once took several hours can sometimes be completed in a few minutes with the right AI tools.

But this raises an interesting question:

Are we actually becoming better because of AI, or are we simply becoming faster?

Think about coding, for example. AI can generate a function, explain an error, suggest improvements, or even create an entire component. This can be extremely useful, especially when we are stuck.

But if we simply copy the generated code without understanding how it works, we may complete the task faster without actually improving our programming skills.

The same applies to writing.

AI can create a professional email or article within seconds. But if we always allow AI to decide what we want to say, how we should say it, and what ideas we should include, are we developing our own communication and creative thinking skills?

At the same time, I don’t think using AI means we are necessarily becoming dependent on it.

When used properly, AI can actually help us learn faster and think better.

For example, we can ask AI to:

• Explain a difficult concept in simple language.
• Give us different approaches to solving a problem.
• Identify weaknesses in our work.
• Challenge our ideas with alternative perspectives.
• Give us examples so we can understand a topic better.
• Help us practise a skill.
• Provide feedback on something we have created.
• Automate repetitive tasks so we can focus on more meaningful work.

The important difference may be how we use AI.

There is a difference between:

“AI, do this for me.”

and

“AI, help me understand how to do this better.”

The first approach can save time, while the second can potentially help us develop our abilities.

Another interesting point is that when AI becomes available to everyone, simply knowing how to use an AI tool may not be enough to stand out.

Our ability to ask good questions, verify information, understand the output, make decisions, communicate clearly, solve problems, and apply knowledge to real situations may become even more important.

AI can generate an answer, but we still need to decide whether that answer actually makes sense.

AI can provide ten ideas, but we need to identify which idea is useful.

AI can generate code, but we need to understand whether the code is secure, efficient, maintainable, and suitable for the actual project.

AI can summarise information, but we still need to think critically about whether the information is accurate and relevant.

So perhaps the goal shouldn’t be to use AI to do everything faster.

Instead, we could use AI to reduce repetitive work while spending more time developing the skills that humans are still responsible for critical thinking, creativity, communication, judgment, problem-solving, and decision-making.

For me, the bigger question is not:

“Can AI do this task for me?”

It is:

“How can I use AI to become better at doing this task myself?”

I’d be interested to hear different perspectives.

Do you think AI is making us better at what we do, or is it mainly making us faster?

Have you experienced a situation where AI genuinely helped you learn or improve a skill?

And finally, how do we make sure we are using AI as a tool for growth rather than becoming too dependent on it?