Based on D365-IRL, Day 359 · September 11, 2026
Technological autonomy should not create human dependence
Carlos Ocampo · Published: · Updated:
English translation of the original Spanish publication. Original dates, authorship and documentary images are preserved.
What happens to our ability to solve problems when the tool we use every day disappears?
Carlos Ocampo · Field Notes D31 · Based on D365-IRL, Day 359 · September 11, 2026
What happens to our ability to solve problems when the tool we use every day disappears?
On Day 359 of D365-IRL, Juan shared a concern about young people entering the workforce who struggle to resolve practical situations when internet, electricity or immediate access to information is unavailable.
His observation opened a conversation about education, technological dependence and responsibility. A question that also involves those of us who lead companies, develop teams or bring artificial intelligence into our work.
What capabilities are we developing as we delegate more and more tasks?
The conversation began with a common narrative: artificial intelligence will eventually dominate humans. During the session, we explored a risk closer to our everyday decisions: gradually giving up the exercise of judgment.
Accepting an answer without checking it. Asking for a recommendation before forming our own interpretation. Avoiding any uncertainty by seeking immediate instructions. Becoming accustomed to receiving solutions without understanding how to evaluate them.
These are practices worth observing in our relationship with technology.
The concern expressed in the session does not allow us to diagnose an entire generation. It does leave us with a useful question for education and work: what opportunities do people have to practice solving problems, making mistakes, improvising and assuming the consequences of their decisions?
Learning to work with support while retaining our own capabilities
During the session, we discussed the educational impact of the pandemic and the need to review educational models designed for other conditions. Capabilities we consider central emerged: judgment, creativity, autonomy, responsibility, human connection and the ability to solve problems.
At D31, we propose observing them within organizations as well.
A team can use AI to prepare a proposal. Human review needs to examine whether it addresses the customer's problem, whether its assumptions are supported and whether the company can fulfill its promises.
That moment of review is also a space for learning. It allows people to explain a choice, detect an error and recognize an alternative. To make use of it, people need to participate in the reasoning and be able to question the result.
The quality of collaboration with AI must also be evaluated by the capabilities its users retain and develop.
This is a design question within Human Centered Agent™: how to organize interaction so technological support expands our possibilities for understanding, deciding and acting.
Human autonomy needs practice
On Day 359, we suggested that learning to use these tools includes deciding what to ask, what to verify, what to delegate, what to keep under our own decision and when to disconnect.
To bring that reflection into work, we propose concrete exercises: forming an interpretation before consulting the system, comparing alternatives, explaining why a recommendation is accepted and practicing how to continue when a tool becomes unavailable.
The purpose is to develop judgment through practice. Knowing how to use support and recognize when we need another source, a conversation or a deeper review.
The 51/49 rule encounters an everyday requirement here. Retaining authority over a decision requires conditions for understanding and exercising it. A signature at the end of a process must correspond to meaningful human involvement.
The autonomous company begins with people
This session contributes an essential dimension to our exploration of the autonomous company.
Besides permissions, mandates and controls, we need people capable of interpreting situations, coordinating and responding when what was planned stops working.
The story we document in D365-IRL is also built through these community questions: how we educate, how we learn and what happens to our capabilities as tools change.
Our thesis is that technological autonomy must expand human autonomy.
If your team lost access to its AI tool tomorrow, what could it still understand, decide and resolve on its own?
Field note developed from the editorial description of Day 359. Observations from the session are presented as experiences and working questions, without generalizing them to an entire generation.
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