My manager wants more AI and I feel less able
You do not have to choose between your manager and your skills. Split your work in two: tasks you can check, which the AI can do, and tasks that are your judgement, where you go first and the AI reviews. Then protect one piece of real work a week that you do with no AI at all.
What is going on
Your manager is measuring output. You are noticing something else: you are less sure of your own answer than you were a year ago. Both can be true at once. More AI use can mean more work done and less practice at the parts of the job that made you good at it.
A survey of 319 knowledge workers (Lee and others, Microsoft Research and Carnegie Mellon, CHI 2025, peer reviewed) found that people who trusted the AI more reported less critical thinking, and people who trusted their own skill reported more. It is a survey of what people said, so it shows a link, not a cause. It still suggests where to put your effort: keep your confidence in the task itself.
What to do this week
Make two lists
"Can check" covers work where you would spot a wrong answer quickly: summaries of things you have read, formatting, first passes at routine text. "My call" covers the rest: priorities, advice, anything a client trusts you for.
Go first on "my call"
Write your own answer or plan in a few lines before you ask. Then ask the AI what you missed. You are still using AI, which is what your manager asked for.
Keep one AI-free block
One task a week, start to finish, on your own. An hour is enough. It tells you where your skills really are.
Report it in your manager's terms
"I use AI for A and B, which saves about this much time. I check C and D myself because errors there are costly." Most managers want results and care, not a usage number.
What not to do
- Do not refuse quietly. It looks like falling behind, and it does not protect your skills either.
- Do not hand over work you could not check. If you cannot tell a wrong answer from a right one, that task is not ready to be delegated.
- Do not judge yourself by speed alone. Feeling faster and being better are different things.
The honest limit
We cannot change your workplace. If AI use is tracked and the target is high, you may have little room, and the one AI-free block may have to happen in your own time. That is not fair, and it may still be worth it.
Questions
Should I tell my manager I feel less able?
You can put it as a quality point: "I want to stay able to check what the AI gives us." That is a reason a manager can support.
Is the feeling real or am I imagining it?
Test it. Do one familiar task with no AI and see how it goes. No study has shown that AI makes anyone less intelligent. Skills you stop practising do get rusty, and practice brings them back.