nowing how to use ChatGPT at work is not enough to succeed on its own.
Companies are pushing AI literacy, or the ability to integrate AI tools into workflows, as essential for staying competitive in the workplace. But Jayney Howson, chief learning officer at ServiceNow, says that directive misses something more fundamental.
As workers offload more thinking to AI, some are starting to outsource their judgment, losing the ability to read people, make calls under uncertainty, and trust their own instincts, which can weaken decision-making and degrade the quality of their work.
“I really do fear that we’re sleepwalking into losing those [soft] skills,” Howson told The Deep View at the ServiceNow Knowledge 2026 event.
ServiceNow is betting heavily on upskilling as its strategy for adapting to AI. Through ServiceNow University, a learning platform launched a year ago, more than 2 million people have enrolled in courses designed to teach workers how to use AI in their day-to-day roles.
Howson sees AI upskilling as essential for productive workplaces. But she is also starting to see how that shift is changing how employees think on the job.
In some cases, workers are relying on AI to structure their thinking rather than using it to support their own judgment, making it harder to operate without it. That dynamic is most visible in roles that depend on human instinct.
In sales, for example, AI is used to generate meeting briefs, summarize customer histories, and prep for calls, helping teams move faster and land bigger deals. But it can also make it easier to default to AI-generated answers instead of responding in the moment.
A strong salesperson might sense from a customer’s reaction that it’s not the right time to push a deal, even when the data suggests otherwise, and hold back. That kind of judgment is easy to lose if it’s no longer practiced.
“I sit in meetings with sales professionals who don’t have the same confidence in understanding the customer because they’re leaning on AI,” Howson said.
What Howson describes extends beyond sales. Every department is at risk of cognitive offloading.
To toe the line between AI and human capabilities, Howson says workers need a mix of three skills. The core skills required for their role, the ability to use AI effectively, and the judgment to know when not to rely on it.
“You have to build that human ability just to be okay being a bit messy,” Howson said. “If you don't have that confidence in yourself, you will not build those AI skills.”
Our Deeper View
There are clear limitations to AI literacy. As companies push large language models into the workplace through mandates and upskilling requirements, workers may be quietly forfeiting their skills and abilities to AI tools. Even if overall productivity improves, cognitive offloading to AI can leave workers with a weaker grasp of how to do their jobs. As a result, workers risk using AI as a crutch. If those systems fail or are unavailable, employees may struggle to rely on their own judgment when making decisions, thereby weakening their performance. Companies that want to reap the benefits of AI will need to balance adoption with the preservation of human judgment and instinct.