Big Companies Are About to Test Whether Their Employees Can Think Without AI. Here’s Why That Should Matter to You.
Gartner just predicted that half of big companies will start testing if employees can think without AI. I've been watching this happen in real meetings. Here's what it means for you.
Happy International Women’s Day.
The future of AI is going to be shaped by the people who build it, question it, and decide how it gets used. Right now, women in tech are doing all three - often with less recognition than they deserve.
The field needs more of their voices, not fewer. If you know a woman in tech who is doing great work, today is a good day to tell her.
Now - to this week’s newsletter.
Gartner recently predicted something that made me think hard.
By 2026, they say, roughly half of large organisations will introduce what they’re calling “AI-free skills assessments.”
In plain English: companies are going to start formally testing whether their employees can still think, write, and solve problems without any AI help at all.
Not instead of AI skills. In addition to them.
When I first read that, I thought it was a bit extreme. But the more I thought about it, and the more I thought about what I see inside big organisations every day, the more I think they’re onto something real.
Last month I was in a meeting with a team trying to solve a difficult problem.
Someone suggested asking ChatGPT. So they did. The AI gave them a confident, well-structured answer. Everyone nodded and moved on.
I asked one of them afterwards: “Do you actually think that was the right answer?”
She paused. “Honestly? I don’t know. It sounded right.”
That’s the problem Gartner is trying to name. Not that AI gives bad answers. But that we’re losing the ability to tell whether the answer is good - because we’ve stopped forming our own opinion first.
It’s like becoming so reliant on GPS that you no longer have any sense of direction yourself. Fine, until the signal drops.
Here’s why this matters specifically if you’re learning AI right now.
You’re entering a world where everyone will have access to the same AI tools. The tools are getting cheaper and easier every month.
In two years, using AI competently won’t be a skill that sets you apart - it’ll just be the baseline.
What will set you apart is the judgment to know when the AI is wrong. The ability to ask a better question. The confidence to push back on an answer that sounds plausible but isn’t quite right.
Those things only come from practising thinking for yourself. And that’s the muscle that quietly atrophies when every task starts with “let me ask AI first.”
The people who will get the most out of AI are the ones who bring their own thinking to it - not the ones who outsource their thinking to it.
One small habit worth building now:
Before you open any AI tool for a problem, spend five minutes writing down what you actually think. Not a perfect answer. Just your honest first attempt - in your own words, your own logic.
Then bring in the AI. Compare. Push back where something feels off.
You’ll get dramatically better results from the tool. And you’ll keep the judgment sharp that makes those results mean something.
The companies Gartner is talking about will be testing for exactly that judgment. The good news is it’s not hard to build - it just has to be intentional.
I’m curious whether this resonates. Have you noticed yourself reaching for AI before you’ve really thought something through?
Hit reply - I read every response and it genuinely shapes what I write next.
Talk soon,
Sandi
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