Six in 10 employees worry that AI is weakening their skills, with critical thinking cited most often as the capability in decline, a new global study from the IBM Institute for Business Value has found.
The study surveyed 1,500 chief human resource officers and 8,800 employees across 21 geographies and 23 industries between April and June 2026, in collaboration with Oxford Economics. Among the 60% worried about skills erosion, three in four say AI has already begun to weaken at least some of their skills.
The research also surfaces a gap between leaders and staff: 71% of CHROs rank the ability to supervise, validate and override AI outputs as the most essential skill, while only 29% of employees rank judgment as important. CHROs cite critical thinking (57%) and human judgment (48%) as among the most important capabilities.
The study also finds that 46% of organisations do not involve the CHRO when AI strategy is being defined, and that companies which clearly label workflows as human-led, AI-assisted or AI-executed report 18% lower risk and 20% higher quality.
The research is global and does not break out India, but the findings land in a market where AI adoption is climbing fast. TeamLease Digital data shows AI penetration at India’s nano retail GCCs has already reached 10.2%, which keeps skills-erosion concerns live for Indian employers scaling the technology. What to watch: whether Indian firms fold critical thinking and AI oversight into learning programmes and bring CHROs into AI strategy earlier.
