Cohen Says Don't Let AI Do Your Thinking. The Warning Stands. The Method Is Everything.

Cohen argues that AI can accelerate execution but warns against overreliance at any career stage. Early-career workers should focus on understanding rather than producing polished output, meaning they must be able to explain an AI-assisted recommendation, identify its underlying assumptions, and defend the work without returning to the tool. Experienced professionals, meanwhile, must ask what judgment they actually contribute after delegating work to AI rather than rubber-stamping its output.

The underlying principle here is cognitive delegation risk. When you outsource execution without retaining comprehension, you atrophy the very judgment that made you employable. The mechanism is simple: competence requires friction, and AI eliminates friction. Remove the struggle and you remove the learning. Every worker, junior or senior, must be able to defend the work as if the tool never existed.

Cohen, writing for Black Enterprise, lays out a career-stage framework for AI use that balances speed against professional development. The guidance is aimed at employees who want to accelerate without hollowing out their own skill base.