How To Know if Your Job Is Making You ‘Dumber,' and What To Do About It

Millions of employees pass the working day by following the same sequence of events on autopilot.

A typical day usually involves the opening of a laptop, the clearing of notifications, delegating tasks to an AI tool, attending a virtual meeting, and perhaps even the creation of something that resembles output all before clocking out. These white-collar workers are busy all day, but what are they really thinking throughout it?

For workers navigating the modern office-whether physical or digital-the honest answer may be: not much.

Experts warn that a convergence of forces shaping contemporary work culture, from chronic cognitive overload and relentless screentime to the explosive outsourcing of mental labor to AI, is quietly eroding the very faculties that keep us sharp, curious and capable.

The consequences of which may be more serious than a bad case of the Sunday scaries or the Monday blues.

Is Work Really Making Us Dumber?

“Professionals are not becoming ‘less intelligent,’ but they are becoming cognitively underutilized,” Christiane Schroeter, career strategist and host of the Happy Healthy Hustle podcast, told Newsweek. “Many modern jobs reward speed, responsiveness, task completion and digital efficiency over deep thinking, creativity, reflection and problem-solving.

“Add AI tools, repetitive workflows, constant notifications and screen fatigue, and many workers begin to feel mentally disengaged rather than intellectually challenged.”

The result, Schroeter said, is not a drop in raw intelligence but something perhaps more insidious: a gradual atrophying of the habits that keep minds vital, such as a reduced attention span or weaker critical-thinking habits.

“One of the biggest issues I see,” she said, “is that people stop learning while still remaining ‘busy.’ Activity replaces growth.”

Loss of American Intelligence

The science gives that concern real weight.

A 2023 study of nearly 400,000 American adults found a measurable reversal of the so-called Flynn Effect-the century-long trend of rising IQ scores-across multiple cognitive domains, including matrix reasoning, verbal reasoning and computational-mathematical ability.

A separate 2019 study recorded declining vocabulary scores in younger cohorts. Visuospatial skills, tellingly, continued to improve-the one domain in which screen-heavy habits arguably pay dividends.

Brandi Williams, a human systems strategist and founder of SoulMed Holistic Health Collaborative, told Newsweek that the problem runs deeper than high screentime and AI dependence alone.

“When expectations are unclear, people often stop using mental energy for creativity, strategic thinking or learning, and instead begin directing that energy toward threat assessment, perception management, guessing what success actually means, avoiding mistakes, and trying to read leadership signals,” she said. “Over time, that can fundamentally change how people think, communicate, engage and solve problems at work.”

The AI question, though, cannot be sidestepped. New data from Preply, the online language learning platform, surveyed 1,142 U.S. adults on AI and workplace communication with striking results.

It reported that 40.3 percent of workers said relying on AI for communication had reduced their confidence in live conversations, while 44.2 percent reported freezing up in-person because they could no longer review or edit their words before speaking, while 62.7 percent had used AI to avoid a difficult workplace conversation entirely.

Only 32.1 percent said they could communicate confidently without AI across the situations tested.

Sharon Grossman, a psychologist and burnout expert, frames the underlying mechanism in terms of basic neuroscience.

“The brain thrives on novelty, challenge and active problem-solving,” she told Newsweek. “When work becomes highly repetitive, overly automated or heavily reliant on AI tools to think for us, we risk underusing key cognitive functions like memory, critical thinking and creativity.

“Over time, that ‘use it or lose it’ principle can translate into reduced cognitive sharpness in those domains.”

The trade-off, she added, is hiding in plain sight: “We love AI because it makes us more productive, but at the same time, it can make us lazy in that we aren’t really thinking anymore.”

Much like Schroeter, Grossman does not think that modern-day work is making us "dumber" in a global sense, but that it may be narrowing how we use our brains.

How We Can Stay Mentally Sharp at Work?

So, what, practically, can workers do? Grossman advocates deliberate segmentation.

She advises that workers delegate the genuinely repetitive tasks to AI, but engineer moments of authentic cognitive engagement back into the day-seeking out learning opportunities, rotating tasks and resisting the reflex to outsource every draft, every decision, every difficult email.

“The goal isn’t just to get the work done,” she said. “The goal is to grow so that you can do more complex tasks over time.”

Schroeter agrees that the solution begins with honest self-diagnosis. The warning signs are recognizable: a shrinking attention span, a reluctance to sit with hard problems, and a creeping sense that curiosity has quietly left the building.

“Mental exhaustion disguised as productivity,” as she put it, is not the same as a good day’s work.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.

This story was originally published May 31, 2026 at 3:30 AM.