Are we eroding our critical thinking? With Michael Gerlich

Today I’m talking to Michael Gerlich about his recent study on the potential effects of AI on critical thinking. While much ink has been spilled discussing the value of the traditional essay in a post GPT landscape, much of the conversation has focused on assessment and questions of authorship. Perhaps unsurprisingly, less time has been given to the impact on the learning process itself. The phrase ‘I write to know what I think’ alludes to the value of putting one’s ideas under the microscope, and of sometimes having to rethink cherished beliefs as we spell them out to ourselves at sentence level. If we outsource this process to ChatGPT, are we losing something valuable? We talk through Michael’s data, his own interpretations, and continue the conversation on whether generative AI is ‘just another tool’, or something more.

Guest bio

Prof. Dr Michael Gerlich is Professor of Management and Head of Centre for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability at SBS Swiss Business School, a Swiss University of Applied Sciences Institute. His academic and professional work focuses on the societal implications of artificial intelligence, change management, and strategic foresight, with a particular interest in bridging research and practice in both policy and business settings.

With prior experience in government advisory and leadership roles across Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East, he has supported a range of public and private institutions in matters related to economic development, export strategy, and organisational transformation. His research on artificial intelligence has addressed topics such as cognitive offloading, critical thinking, and the ethical dimensions of technology in education and society. His work has been mentioned globally by media including Forbes, Financial Times, The Economist and many more.

Prof. Gerlich has contributed to academic and public debates through his writing and through speaking engagements at international conferences, including events hosted by the United Nations. He holds full, visiting and affiliated teaching roles in Zurich, London (LSE), and Cambridge (ARU), and remains actively involved in interdisciplinary work at the intersection of technology, sociology and human behaviour.

Further reading

Bunn, P.D. (2025). The AI Crisis in Higher Education: Or, on the importance of doing things badly. Everything was beautiful. https://everythingwasbeautiful.substack.com/p/the-ai-crisis-in-higher-education?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true

Gerlich, M. (2025). AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking. Societies, 15(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010006

Lee H.P, Sarkar A, Tankelevitch L, Drosos I, Rintel S, Banks R, Wilson N. (2025). The impact of generative AI on critical thinking: Self-reported reductions in cognitive effort and confidence effects from a survey of knowledge workers. Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf