Recent research published in HBR confirmed something that I’ve observed anecdotally, but I hadn’t thought through the broader consequences.
Getting to the punchline, it goes like this.
If peers perceive you as smart, senior, or experienced, your use of AI is perceived to be a good thing! You are being proactive by outsourcing administrative and other lower order work so you can work on higher order, strategic items. Good for you!
If you’re perceived as junior or inexperienced, your use of AI is perceived by a bad thing! Clearly you can’t hang with people with credentials, certifications, and tenure, so you’re using AI to shore up your deficiencies. You’re a poser using AI to fake who you are not. Shame on you!
I’m kinda/sortof embellishing a bit, but not by much. We see AI as either a way for smart people to get more leverage as well as a way for ignorant people to fake it.
This is an important cognitive bias to be aware of, because it can amplify mistrust to people based on age, sex, role, experience, etc. We should all be using AI to amplify our abilities while not holding it against anybody.
At the very least, we should be aware how we’re not applying our perceptions evenly, and that can lead to unfair biases.