What SurveyMonkey discovered about the hidden costs of AI

Why AI weakens human judgment

SurveyMonkey shared that the World Economic Forum has noted that it believes curiosity is one of the fastest-growing skills. Also in the report, Jack Sol, Distinguished Professor of Management and Organizations at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, explained some of the psychology behind curiosity and AI. He explained that AI can create a false sense of completion because people often feel like there’s “nothing more to know” when they get answers from AI. He also warned that while AI may make individuals more efficient, it could also lead to more uniform thinking and less creativity and innovation if people stop asking questions and exploring ideas more deeply.

One of the most powerful ideas in the report involves what SurveyMonkey calls “AI intermediaries.” Leaders are increasingly routing questions through AI rather than peers or teams. In fact, leaders report using AI to replace colleagues at nearly three times the rate of lower-level employees.

At first, the behavior seems efficient. Save time and reduce interruptions by asking AI for quick answers. The problem is that many important skills in the workplace are developed through discussion, disagreement, collaboration, and questioning of others. When those conversations disappear, employees may still get answers, but they miss out on the opportunity to build judgment.

According to the report, employees who frequently use AI instead of consulting colleagues report making more mistakes, missing opportunities, wasting more time, and having more team misalignment. This finding was impressive to me because it confirmed what I had been researching for years through research on curiosity. Curiosity is very social. Many of the best ideas, discoveries, and innovations occur when people challenge assumptions together, rather than simply accepting quick answers individually.

Why AI could reduce independent thinking in the workplace

Another big concern in the report has to do with what SurveyMonkey describes as “scroll reflexes.” The idea is that employees are becoming conditioned to accept the first answer they receive instead of digging deeper.

More than one-third of workers using AI report accepting the AI’s output with little or no resistance. Many of those same workers admit that they actually trust their colleagues more than AI. The speed and convenience of AI can create the illusion that a faster answer is automatically a better answer.

The report also cited research that compared ideas generated by AI with ideas generated by humans on their own. When humans worked alone, they generated far more unique ideas than when humans worked with AI. This finding raises important questions about originality, exploration, and critical thinking in an environment where employees increasingly rely on similar tools trained on similar datasets.

This is one of the hidden costs that organizations are still not fully aware of. While AI can definitely improve productivity, if employees become overly reliant on autocomplete thinking, organizations can slowly lose some of the diversity of thought that drives innovation.

Why AI is increasing efficiency pressure in the workplace

The report also examined what it called the “efficiency squeeze.” Many workplaces value speed so aggressively that employees are reluctant to slow down long enough to ask better questions. The report found that employees were interrupted on average every two minutes, and nearly half had to start over because the right questions weren’t asked early enough.

Four out of 10 employees say they stay silent during meetings because they don’t want to slow things down, while others admit they avoid speaking up because the meeting moves too quickly or because asking questions might create additional work.

Why AI in the workplace could hit younger workers hardest

Their findings also showed that young workers pay the highest psychological costs. Gen Z employees reported the highest pressure to already know the answers, the highest rates of pretending to understand things they don’t fully understand, and the most likely to remain silent after asking “too many” questions.

The influence on curiosity can be interpreted differently depending on the individual’s position within the organization. When senior leaders ask questions, it is often seen as engagement and strategic thinking. If a junior employee asks similar questions, it may come across as unprepared or inexperienced.

Why AI work requires curiosity and not curiosity

SurveyMonkey research shows that workplaces that encourage questioning report significantly higher psychological safety and fewer mistakes, missed opportunities, and wasted time than workers in environments that encourage questioning. Curiosity itself hasn’t disappeared, but it can be inhibited by several factors, including fear, assumptions, technology, and interactions in the work environment. Workers still want opportunities to brainstorm, ask questions, collaborate, and think deeper. As AI is integrated into many daily interactions in the workplace, many employees are still trying to figure out when technology should support human thinking and when it should not replace human conversation, collaboration, and judgment. As technology continues to change work, organizations still need people to ask questions, brainstorm, and learn from each other if they want creativity and innovation to survive.