From Artists to Artisans: Preserving Agency Against Cognitive Fordism

Generative AI can expand creative work, but it can also narrow human work into prompting, checking, and correcting. We call this risk cognitive Fordism: a division of cognitive labor in which AI takes over more of the judgment-rich work through which people learn and exercise agency. We propose a work-design framework for AI-mediated activity built around three orientations (execute, learn, and create), two forms of autonomy (substantive, and directional), and three kinds of cognitive effort (analytical, creative, and practical). Interaction roles may be chosen by users or inferred by the system, but they should stay visible and easy to change. Systems can also estimate the amount and type of cognitive effort people are exercising and use that information, together with self-report and work-design measures, to support better task and workflow design. The framework’s novelty lies in treating the division of cognition between people and AI as a work-design choice shaped not only by the task, but also by whether the human goal is to execute, learn, or create.