Convenience becomes dependence when the tool is no longer simply increasing output but quietly determining what the user can understand, decide, or defend.
One practical response is the AI-off test. Choose a capability that matters to your role and periodically perform a representative task without generative assistance. Do not use the exercise to prove moral purity. Use it diagnostically.
Can you frame the problem? Can you identify the relevant evidence? Can you explain the governing concepts? Can you detect an obvious error? Can you produce a reasonable first approach? Can you tell when you need help?
The result reveals where capability has migrated. Sometimes that migration is acceptable. Few professionals need to preserve every manual technique displaced by better tools. But if the missing capability is necessary for oversight, safety, identity, or advancement, the organization should deliberately rebuild it.
AI-off testing also protects against false confidence. The goal is not to match the machine's speed. It is to know whether the human still possesses enough of the underlying map to supervise the machine intelligently.