AI as a “Bicycle for the Mind”

🚲 Artificial intelligence is often discussed primarily in terms of automation and job displacement. However, a recent paper by Ajay K. Agrawal, Joshua S. Gans, and Avi Goldfarb proposes a different perspective: AI should also be understood as a tool that amplifies human cognitive abilities.

In their paper The Economics of Bicycles for the Mind, the authors argue that AI functions similarly to a bicycle – not by replacing human effort entirely, but by making thinking and decision-making more efficient and productive.

💡A particularly important contribution of the paper is the distinction between two forms of judgment:

📍opportunity judgment – identifying what is worth doing,
📍payoff judgment – deciding what action should be taken.

The paper also challenges the assumption that better AI inevitably leads to full automation. On the contrary, as AI systems become more capable, the importance of uniquely human judgment may actually increase.

This perspective shifts the discussion from “AI versus humans” toward “AI with humans.” Instead of focusing exclusively on replacement, the debate increasingly concerns how people and intelligent systems can collaborate effectively in organizations and digital work environments.

These conclusions strongly align with the goals of the DIGIT_People and algorithms project, which examines how competencies required for work evolve in increasingly AI-supported organizational settings.

📖 Source:
Agrawal, A. K., Gans, J. S., & Goldfarb, A. (2025). The Economics of Bicycles for the Mind. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://lnkd.in/dkXnmgv2

This post is part of the project “People and Algorithms in Organisations: Competences to Work in the Digital Environment” (DIGIT_People and algorithms), funded by the NAWA – Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej (NAWA).

#DIGIT_NAWA #NAWA #AI #FutureOfWork #DigitalTransformation #DecisionMaking #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalCompetencies #Productivity #AIResearch