With the launch of the beta version of ChatGPT in November 2022, my interactions with Generative AI moved from something new and unprecedented to becoming a constant companion in my everyday life. Now, almost three years later, GenAI is deeply rooted in my professional and personal environments.
In my work environment, our company’s internal GPT “vally” acts almost like a digital co-consultant: drafting emails, enhancing client-facing material, and even simulating scenarios that would otherwise take me forever to do. Vally accelerates my workflows and enhances quality. At the same time, I am raising myself the question: Am I improving my own skills, or am I simply outsourcing part of my thinking process to an algorithm that never sleeps?
At home, the interactions are far less formal but no less present. Just the other day, I felt like making pancakes but had no scale and only a random mix of leftovers in the fridge. Instead of calling my mom, I asked ChatGPT for a recipe using only basic ingredients and a cup for measurement. A couple of minutes later, I was eating delicious pancakes. It might seem trivial, but moments like this show how naturally I hand over some of the smallest everyday decisions to AI.
Within my studies, Generative AI has taken on yet another role. It serves as a discussion partner, challenging my reasoning and summarizing complex readings. Rather than replacing critical thinking, it often sharpens it. By comparing my arguments to AI-generated ones, I am forced to refine my perspective and can develop it further. Still, the danger of overreliance is real. If every academic idea is first filtered through AI, does my originality become diluted?
This dilemma between support and dependence is the key concept of my reflection. Generative AI is not only a tool for productivity but also shapes how we think, learn, and make decisions. It is both enabling and limiting. Enabling, because it gives me faster access to knowledge and creativity. Simultaneously, limiting, because it tempts me to surrender intellectual effort to convenience.
The broader challenge for us, students, professionals, and individuals, is not whether AI will continue to improve. It will! The real question is whether we can develop the awareness and discipline to use it as a tool without letting it take away our ability to think and decide independently. The fate is now in our hands: How dependent do we want to become on machines as a daily companion?
References
Saager, M. (2025). Vally – our valantic custom AI Assistant. valantic. https://www.valantic.com/en/generative-ai/ai-assistant/
I fully agree with you regarding the dependency on AI tools such as ChatGPT. We realise how dependent people are on ChatGPT only when the complex tasks appear, whereas critical thinking should be applied. People still choose to use Generative AI, looking at the short-term effects, as the task will be completed more efficiently and faster. However, AI has its own disadvantages, such as reducing critical thinking and decision-making abilities.
I think your post touches upon a very relevant issue and makes you wonder how the continued use of generative AI will affect our own skills. On the one hand, AI is leading us to a world where we a are relieved from most repetitive and time-consuming tasks. But on the other hand, it may have negative impact on our own problem-solving skills especially if we increasingly depend on it.
In my opinion, the biggest effect of what you described is more so about trust. Every time we decide to rely on AI for daily tasks whether it’s writing an email or checking for spelling/grammar mistakes, we increasingly expect the AI to be right. This trust in AI often saves time but it can also create a blind spot. If everyone stopped checking or questioning the AI’s output, we may risk letting these AI tool set the standard of wat is perceived normal/good instead of ourselves.
I really liked your post, because it shows how AI sneaks into both big and small parts of our lives. I could relate to the pancake story a lot, because it points out the perspective on uniqueness. In my experience, asking AI too soon tends to frame my entire way of thinking, but using it later actually helps me refine my thoughts. I realized I also need to strike a balance between using AI to assist me and not allowing it to take over, because in the end, I will forget how to think on my own.