Generative AI and the Psychological Experience of Employees: Creative Opportunities and Risks of Cognitive Dependence

This article explains how AGI influences our psychological experiences in the modern workplace and how it can serve as both a (potential) stimulant of creativity and cognitive efficiency and a (potential) vice that can be addictive and impair critical thinking. The purpose of this paper is to examine the integration of AGI into workers’ cognitive and affective processes and its impact on their thought, creation, and decision-making processes. This question highlights how intensive use of these tools (including ChatGPT or Midjourney) can enhance organizational creativity while inducing changes in cognitive dependence, externalizing intellectual work skills, and leading to a loss of reflective independence. This is a qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews, usually involving six participants from different professions (project managers, communication experts, teacher researchers, human resource managers…). By using NVivo, this approach is able to exploratory capture the perception, representation, and coping responses to AGI in everyday life. IAG is seen as a powerful source of inspiration, but it can also be psychologically stressful. It has rekindled thinking about how to inject new blood into creativity and made culture more vibrant. However, it can also breed dangers, such as ideas becoming too similar and the brain losing meaning. To achieve this goal, the deployment of artificial intelligence in practice must be redesigned. Policies are needed to allow reflective training, promote critical thinking and enable people to maintain human skills. Future work from this project will strive further knowledge about the artificial intelligence effects on thinking and consciousness, as well as to produce recommendations for responsible and ethical practices in AI.