De-skilling, Cognitive Offloading, and Misplaced Responsibilities: Potential Ironies of AI-Assisted Design

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Shukla, Prakash, Bui, Phuong, Levy, Sean S, Kowalski, Max, Baigelenov, Ali, Parsons, Paul
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866916645037932544
author Shukla, Prakash
Bui, Phuong
Levy, Sean S
Kowalski, Max
Baigelenov, Ali
Parsons, Paul
author_facet Shukla, Prakash
Bui, Phuong
Levy, Sean S
Kowalski, Max
Baigelenov, Ali
Parsons, Paul
contents The rapid adoption of generative AI (GenAI) in design has sparked discussions about its benefits and unintended consequences. While AI is often framed as a tool for enhancing productivity by automating routine tasks, historical research on automation warns of paradoxical effects, such as de-skilling and misplaced responsibilities. To assess UX practitioners' perceptions of AI, we analyzed over 120 articles and discussions from UX-focused subreddits. Our findings indicate that while practitioners express optimism about AI reducing repetitive work and augmenting creativity, they also highlight concerns about over-reliance, cognitive offloading, and the erosion of critical design skills. Drawing from human-automation interaction literature, we discuss how these perspectives align with well-documented automation ironies and function allocation challenges. We argue that UX professionals should critically evaluate AI's role beyond immediate productivity gains and consider its long-term implications for creative autonomy and expertise. This study contributes empirical insights into practitioners' perspectives and links them to broader debates on automation in design.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_03924
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle De-skilling, Cognitive Offloading, and Misplaced Responsibilities: Potential Ironies of AI-Assisted Design
Shukla, Prakash
Bui, Phuong
Levy, Sean S
Kowalski, Max
Baigelenov, Ali
Parsons, Paul
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
The rapid adoption of generative AI (GenAI) in design has sparked discussions about its benefits and unintended consequences. While AI is often framed as a tool for enhancing productivity by automating routine tasks, historical research on automation warns of paradoxical effects, such as de-skilling and misplaced responsibilities. To assess UX practitioners' perceptions of AI, we analyzed over 120 articles and discussions from UX-focused subreddits. Our findings indicate that while practitioners express optimism about AI reducing repetitive work and augmenting creativity, they also highlight concerns about over-reliance, cognitive offloading, and the erosion of critical design skills. Drawing from human-automation interaction literature, we discuss how these perspectives align with well-documented automation ironies and function allocation challenges. We argue that UX professionals should critically evaluate AI's role beyond immediate productivity gains and consider its long-term implications for creative autonomy and expertise. This study contributes empirical insights into practitioners' perspectives and links them to broader debates on automation in design.
title De-skilling, Cognitive Offloading, and Misplaced Responsibilities: Potential Ironies of AI-Assisted Design
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.03924