Beyond the Prompts: Detecting the AI – Human Agency Gap and the Accumulation of Psychological Debt Article

Beyond the Prompts: Detecting the AI – Human Agency Gap and the Accumulation of Psychological Debt


Asefa Vijay Kumar
Asefa Vijay Kumar Corresponding Author
Published: 07/04/2026
Keywords:AI-Human Agency GapPsychological DebtSkill AtrophyCognitive OffloadingAgency ForeclosureAgency SpectrumAction Research
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As Generative AI becomes ubiquitous in professional and personal workflows, a critical ‘AI – Human Agency Gap’ is emerging. This in-progress research investigates the systemic depletion of human capabilities across five psychological domains: Cognitive, Emotional, Behavioural, Social, and Moral. The study posits that the continuous offloading of tasks to AI leads to the accumulation of ‘Psychological Debt’ — a structural deficit in human agency triggered by what the author defines as the transactional ‘You-do-it’ Syndrome. Utilizing a mixed-methods exploratory sequential design, this work aims to develop and validate a first of its kind standardized diagnostic: the AI-Induced Psychological Debt Accumulation (AI-PDA) Scale. By operationalizing the ‘interest rate’ of AI offloading as a measurable variable of capability erosion, the AI-PDA scale moves beyond superficial efficiency metrics to provide a predictive tool for safeguarding human sovereignty in an increasingly automated landscape.

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Asefa Vijay Kumar
Asefa Vijay Kumar Corresponding Author

Affiliation

Doctorate in Psychology Programme (Psy D.)

Department of Psychology

European International University

59 Rue Lamarck 75018 Paris

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