AI Is a Moving Walkway — But We Need to Keep Walking

I Learned to Walk Before the Walkway Was There

When I think about my own use of AI, I feel fortunate. I have lived and worked in a time when independent thinking was a practical necessity. I have written by hand, developed ideas without a computer, and solved problems without being able to ask a digital assistant to suggest the next step.

I have had to start with a blank sheet of paper and stay with it until something took shape.

That does not mean everything was better in the past. Work could be slow, information difficult to find, and useful ideas hard to put into practice. But I had the opportunity to practise expressing myself, improvising, making choices, and taking responsibility for my judgements.

That experience stays with me when I use AI. I have something against which to compare its suggestions: my own attempts, mistakes, and situations in which reality has put my ideas to the test.

I learned to walk before I stepped onto the moving walkway.

Children Who Encounter the Walkway from the Start

For children born today, AI will be part of the world they come to know. They will not remember a time before it. Being able to ask a system a question and immediately receive a well-written answer may become as ordinary as switching on a light.

That gives them opportunities I never had. They can receive explanations, explore their interests, and create things that once required both money and specialist knowledge.

At the same time, they need opportunities to build foundations of their own.

My advantage does not lie in belonging to a particular generation. It lies in having had the chance to practise independence. Young people can, of course, develop the same ability. But adults need to make sure there is room for them to try things themselves, even when technology offers a shortcut.

Anyone who encounters the moving walkway from the beginning still needs the opportunity to learn to walk.

When the Result Conceals What We Understand

With AI, we can quickly produce a well-written text, a draft business plan, or a presentation. The distance between an idea and a useful first draft can shrink considerably.

For someone with ideas but limited time or certain gaps in practical knowledge, that is a significant opportunity.

But the quality of the result and our own understanding are two different things. We can present an argument without being able to defend it. We can use concepts without understanding what they mean. We can deliver a convincing report without knowing which assumptions underpin its conclusions.

This becomes particularly difficult when others judge us solely by what we deliver.

The walkway has moved us forward. That does not automatically mean we have become better at walking.

The Leg Muscles of Thought

The brain is not a leg muscle, and a metaphor is not scientific proof. Still, the image helps us frame an important question: which abilities do we get to use when technology does more and more for us?

Writing, for example, is also a way of thinking. We decide what matters, discover gaps in our reasoning, and try to find words that actually express what we mean.

I appreciate having experienced that process without a machine constantly offering the next sentence. Crossing out a line, starting again, and gradually understanding what I am trying to say.

If we routinely hand over that process, we have fewer opportunities to practise it. We therefore need to consider when we want a finished answer and when we need to work our way towards understanding.

Walking Alongside the Technology

Someone who walks on a moving walkway uses both their own energy and the machine’s. With AI, that means contributing experience, curiosity, intention, and judgement.

We can begin with a thought of our own and then ask AI to challenge it. What objections might there be? What have we overlooked? Which facts need checking? Is there another way to understand the problem?

The answer then becomes material for further work.

A project idea can be tested against budgets, people, location, and practical delivery. A piece of writing can develop as we examine its arguments and rewrite anything that does not feel true or relevant.

We are still doing the work, but we have help to go further.

That is the kind of use that appeals to me most: allowing technology to challenge and develop something in which I am actively engaged.

The Right to Stand Still Sometimes

Nobody needs to put maximum effort into every task. We do not have to prove our worth by writing the same routine message for the fiftieth time.

Sometimes we should stand still on the walkway.

Someone who is tired, overwhelmed, or struggling with a particular task may need support. Technology can make participation possible where the barriers were previously too high. Independence can also mean being able to use the right tools.

The question is which parts of the work we hand over and what we do with the energy that frees up.

If AI helps me with administration, I can give more attention to people and ideas. If, however, I delegate every judgement, I need to consider how actively I am still participating.

Rest is valuable. The habit of always letting ourselves be carried is what needs examining.

Experience as a Check and a Compass

Practical work teaches us that reality rarely follows a presentation. Something is missing. Someone falls ill. Conditions change. A solution that looked excellent on paper turns out to be impossible on site.

Experiences like these give me questions to ask about AI’s suggestions.

Who is going to carry this out? How long will it actually take? What happens if an essential element falls through? Have we considered the people who will work in that environment?

An attractive visualisation does not automatically answer those questions.

This is where experience and AI can become a powerful combination. Technology helps us develop and illustrate alternatives. Professional knowledge helps us judge what will hold up in practice.

My experience does not make me infallible, but it gives me reasons to pause when an answer looks suspiciously simple.

Having the Chance to Struggle with a Thought

I think we need to be careful about removing all effort from learning. Not understanding immediately does not necessarily mean something has gone wrong.

When we try for ourselves, we discover what we do not yet understand. We can find out why a solution works, rather than simply recognising what it looks like.

AI can support that process. It can offer a hint, explain a difficult step, or ask a question that helps us move forward.

But for that to work, we sometimes need to resist taking the complete solution.

This applies to young people learning a subject and to older people trying to understand something new. Even with years of experience, we can be tempted to confuse an understandable answer with knowledge of our own.

The Workplace’s Responsibility for Developing Skills

The same challenge exists within organisations. More documents, faster analyses, and shorter processing times are relatively easy to count. It is harder to assess whether employees still understand the work.

Who can spot an error? Who can explain a decision? Who knows how the process works when the system is unavailable?

An employer needs to consider both today’s output and tomorrow’s expertise. When tasks are automated, opportunities to learn the profession may disappear with them.

Old routines do not need to be preserved out of habit. But learning needs a new place.

Otherwise, we risk building organisations that produce a great deal while fewer and fewer people can assess the quality, handle exceptions, or help the next generation understand the work.

When the Walkway Stops

What do we do when the moving walkway stops?

With AI, the interruption may be literal: the service is down or unavailable. But it may also mean that the task requires something the tool cannot do reliably.

Then we need to be able to define the problem ourselves, evaluate information, and make a reasonable decision with incomplete evidence.

We do not need to be able to do everything without technology. People have never needed to. But it is wise to understand the dependencies we create and which fundamental abilities we want to retain.

Having worked without today’s tools gives me a sense of confidence. At the same time, that confidence is no exemption. I, too, need to keep exercising my judgement, testing my assumptions, and learning.

Past experience needs to meet present-day reality.

Keep Taking Your Own Steps

I want to use AI. I want to develop ideas, explore possibilities, and accomplish things that would otherwise remain in my head. My background makes me curious about what technology can help me achieve.

At the same time, I am grateful for the years when I had to find my own way.

I want young people to have that opportunity too, in a world where help is always close at hand. To feel the satisfaction of making their own discovery, stay with a difficult question, and notice their own abilities growing.

Some days, we need to let technology carry more of the load. On other days, we can walk briskly and see how far the combination takes us.

The moving walkway is welcome to help us forward. We still need the opportunity to use our own legs.