Beyond AI Capability: Investigating Human Adaptation to Repeated Interaction With Artificial Intelligence

Public discussion of artificial intelligence has concentrated heavily on what AI systems can do, how rapidly their capabilities are advancing, and how those systems should be controlled. A parallel question is less developed: what happens to human functioning when people interact with increasingly capable AI systems repeatedly and over extended periods of time? This question extends beyond immediate task performance. It concerns whether repeated interaction with artificial intelligence is associated with changes in independent reasoning, cognitive offloading, metacognitive monitoring, judgment and confidence, uncertainty tolerance, self-regulation, help-seeking, social functioning, and emotional reliance. Existing research provides evidence relevant to each of these domains, but the literature remains fragmented across cognitive psychology, neuroscience, human-computer interaction, education, organizational behavior, and social psychology. Emerging research also suggests that the manner of AI use may matter as much as frequency of use. Recent studies distinguish between AI use that scaffolds human cognition and use that transfers cognitive agency to the system, while other research has begun examining perceived loss of cognitive ownership and changes in patterns of emotional support seeking. This paper argues that the next stage of research should move beyond evaluating AI as an isolated tool and examine the human-AI system longitudinally. The central empirical question is whether repeated interaction with artificial intelligence is associated with measurable changes in human functioning, for whom such changes occur, under what conditions, through what mechanisms, and whether those changes persist when AI assistance is unavailable.