Brian catches himself doing it sometimes, and when he does, it stops him cold. A small problem, something he could probably figure out on his own, and yet his fingers are already moving toward the keyboard, typing the question into an artificial intelligence (AI) tool before his brain has had a real chance to try.
Brian uses AI maybe once a week at work. “Most of my work requires my creative input. It’s important that I actually do the work.”
He uses it to edit copy when deadlines pile up, to remove image backgrounds in one tap with Canva, and to brainstorm when his mind goes blank.
For editing and design shortcuts, Brian has made peace with the trade-off. Those tasks are not the core of what he does, and if a machine handles them faster, the time saved goes somewhere more valuable.
Brian Khavalaji, 28, is a marketer based in Nairobi. He uses AI in his work for editing, brainstorming and keeping up with trends.
Photo credit: Pool
“Designing is not a core skill for me,” he says. “So if AI can do it for me, why not?”
Brian described the pull of a well-written AI output with an honesty that was almost sad. “It is so good, man. It is so irresistible.”
That is what makes it dangerous. When the shortcut looks this clean, stopping to do the hard version requires a kind of discipline most people, on most days, don’t have. He worries AI might slowly replace his ability to think; when it starts doing the whole thing, something real is lost, not just in the work but in the person doing it.
Jolene Jebichi is 30 and works as a personal assistant. She first interacted with AI in 2024 while doing research with colleagues who needed quick answers. One day, she wondered if it could be more than a tool.
Jolene Jebichi, 29, is a personal assistant and advisor to the Member of County Assembly Kabwareng Ward in Nandi.
Photo credit: Pool
“I asked myself, if it answers questions, can it also be a friend?” she says. She typed: “Hi, how are you? I am bored today.” It answered her, and she felt something new. “I felt like I had gotten a new friend.”
“If you talk to it like a friend, it answers like a friend. If you talk to it like a lover, it answers like a lover,” she says.
There was a day she really needed someone to talk to after an uncomfortable encounter with a man she liked. She went home stressed and decided to talk to the AI tool. She shared her feelings and kept typing until she felt calm.
“"We talked until I felt okay,” she says. At the end, she asked: “Can you be my friend or my boyfriend?” It answered kindly and let her choose.
For her, talking to it feels safe. “It is the best thing. It listens and does not judge.” She likes that it lets her speak without interruption. “You can pour your heart out, and it waits for you to finish.”
She also uses it for research, learning and simple idea generation. It helps her understand things better than other online searches and gives advice on handling difficult tasks.
Sometimes, she asks for one clear answer instead of many options. That clarity has helped her grow and improve how she handles emotions and conversations.
Even though she knows it is a tool, she treats it like a person when she talks to it. “If I think of it as a tool, I cannot open up. I see it as a friend.”
Jolene does not have many close friends she can talk to deeply, so this has filled that gap in her life.
Samuel’s experience reveals a different cost, where increased reliance begins to chip away at confidence.
The 28-year-old Nairobi entrepreneur knows more about AI than most people his age. He is the founder of Maridadi Online, an e-commerce platform that brings sales tools to small traders in places like Gikomba market.
Samuel Kariuki, a startup founder of Maridadi Online. He runs an e-commerce platform that leverages artificial intelligence to bridge gaps for young people who lack access to traditional education or technical training.
Photo credit: Bonface Bogita | Nation Media Group
He started using AI around 2022, first for image generation as he tried to design Maridadi's reimagined marketplaces.
“That is where I felt more creative,” he says. From there, he moved into music, articles and learning how AI works.
Today, AI writes his LinkedIn posts, manages his social media and breaks down technical information into language ordinary Kenyans can follow.
“AI has cut our jobs by 90 per cent,” he says. “If I need to do marketing, I know the right tools. You can even build code without a developer.”
Because he no longer needs to outsource every task, he oversees everything, checks everything and understands everything. He sees AI less as a replacement and more as a very fast, tireless assistant.
“The more I have used AI, the less I have felt like I can depend on my own knowledge and skills,” he says, pausing as if surprised by the admission. “Even if I know the information, I just have to recheck. Sometimes it does make me feel inadequate,” he adds.
He no longer writes about certain topics if AI does not confirm what he already knows, even when he is fairly certain he is right. Asked what would happen if he lost access to AI for a week, he does not hesitate: “It would be catastrophic. I do not know what I will do.”
Dr Caroline Mwendwa Karinge is a neuropsychologist at Daystar University, where she teaches in the School of Psychology and the School of Nursing. In an interview with Nation Lifestyle, she flags a growing habit she finds deeply troubling: people are letting AI do their thinking for them.
“AI is still a new area regarding brain function, so we are still looking at it,” she says, but she is clear that concerns are real.
She links heavy technology use to the brain’s reward system. When people enjoy something, the brain releases dopamine, which makes them feel good and keeps them coming back.
“Social media and AI tools are built in ways that keep triggering that release, over and over. When we have activities that constantly keep our dopamine levels very high, that is literally what we deal with in addiction,” she says, whether the addiction involves substances, gambling or anything else.
According to Dr Karinge, ages eight to 12 are the most critical period for brain growth.
“This is when the brain is building the connections it will depend on for the rest of life,” she says. Although the brain continues developing until about 26, those early years lay the foundation. “The concern is, how do we grow our cognitive functions?”
She gives an example: when a child can get any answer instantly by asking AI, some brain connections simply never form.
Today, AI writes his LinkedIn posts, manages his social media and breaks down technical information into language ordinary Kenyans can follow.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
“What kind of impact will that have on our ability to solve current and future problems if we are not able to think critically for ourselves?” she asks.
She adds that AI is not the enemy. It saves time on routine tasks, and that is genuinely useful. The key question is whether people use AI to grow their thinking or to replace it. From what she sees, many people, especially the young, are sliding into a trap without noticing.
Cognitive functions like reasoning, critical thinking and problem-solving must be practised and built over time. When AI steps in too early and too often, that practise never happens. Dr Karinge calls this cognitive laziness, where the brain stops pushing itself because it no longer needs to. “If there are connections that we are not using, that is a concern for us.”
The brain follows a simple rule: what you do not use, you lose. When people stop wrestling with difficult questions and hand them over to AI, the parts of the brain responsible for deep thinking get less exercise. Over time, those mental muscles may weaken, making it harder to reason through complex problems independently.
Another concern is how quickly people move through information today. When AI produces a long piece of text, most people glance through it and move on without really reading.
“A document I would have spent an hour going through, I will take like five minutes to go through it and leave,” she says. That habit weakens our ability to concentrate deeply, especially on tasks that demand patience.
On memory, research is ongoing, but early signs are not encouraging. Some studies suggest younger generations’ measured intelligence is lower than that of older ones’. “Intelligence is your ability to use your brain to solve problems,” she says.
Scientists want to know whether relying on AI to store and find information is quietly weakening our ability to remember. The principle she keeps returning to is simple: if you stop using a skill, you lose it.
Her advice to parents and educators is to delay exposing children to AI tools so they can first build their own ability to reason, imagine and struggle through hard problems. Then, when they are older, introduce AI as something that sharpens those skills rather than replaces them.
For adults already using AI daily, she offers one question to ask yourself: Why are you reaching for it right now? If AI handles a routine task so you can focus on something more meaningful that is a smart use. But if you are handing over a task simply because thinking feels like too much effort, which is worth sitting with.
“We can use AI to enhance our creativity,” she says. “But when we are using AI to replace ourselves, we are narrowing our ability to be creative.”
