AI should help you make fewer decisions, not more

Today we have plenty of options, and it is easy to get lost in them. Let’s focus on shopping because this seems to be the most universal case. Everyone does some shopping.

Emerging companies often try to tell us what big corporations are doing wrong, so today many of us are a little more aware of where things come from, check labels, and try to choose more wisely. This seems to be a good thing, but sometimes we may end up doing extensive research about everything.

Is it really worth our time?

I always consider the opportunity cost. If I decide to do something, I automatically put it on some kind of priority list, as opposed to all the things I will not have time to do. If it is something I care about a lot, like health, then perhaps it is worth the time to investigate my choices. But if I am going to buy a T-shirt because summer is coming, perhaps it is better to choose it with minimal time and effort?

AI recommendations can help us make fewer decisions

I recently heard an interview with an IT expert [in Polish] who was discussing the threat that AI knows more and more about us. This problem applies both to social media, where AI recommendation systems are hugely successful, and to the use of large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT or Claude.

AI systems can understand us quite well. In one study, a computer model needed just 10 Facebook Likes to outperform a work colleague in judging someone's personality, around 70 to outperform a friend or roommate, and 150 to outperform a family member [1].

However, considering the number of choices we have for everything, I am not sure this is really a problem. If AI can help us make fewer decisions about things that barely matter, that may actually be an advantage.

Critics of AI profiling claim that we are no longer making our own decisions.

But would you really want to make your own decision about everything?

Our brains are really good at turning repeated behaviours into habits. Research suggests that around 40% of our everyday behaviour is habitual, rather than requiring deliberate decision-making each time [2]. We do not need to make a conscious decision every time we brush our teeth. This is a matter of habit and automatic execution.

This is useful because deliberate decisions require effort and attention. If we had to consciously decide every routine action, everyday life would be far more mentally demanding.

This is why it makes sense to me to look at decision-making ability as some kind of limited capacity we have. Like the battery in our phone: once it is empty, we need to recharge it, adequate rest - particularly sleep - helps us maintain cognitive performance [3,4]. Of course, the brain is not literally a battery. But prolonged cognitive effort can make further mental effort feel increasingly costly, so I still find the battery metaphor useful, as long as we remember that it is only a metaphor.

Another interesting point is that, based on what we know about the human brain, we may not be so sure whether we have full control over the decisions we make.

They may be affected by genes, environment, random events on a given day, our mood, hormonal balance, previous experiences, and other people. There are plenty of factors that may affect our decisions.

Even when we do deep research on something, we cannot exclude these factors, because we are human beings, not machines, and therefore we are constantly pulled around by emotions. There is actually a big discussion in science about whether free will exists at all.

I think there is no such thing as a human decision without the influence of factors that are outside the control of the decision-maker.

However, there are better and worse sources of influence.

Some of them we can choose, like our friends or the job we do. These are fundamental choices because our environment shapes us a lot.

Therefore, I think the question is not how to make independent decisions - which may be an illusion - but what influences me and how I can shape the factors that influence me the most.

I think one of the most important decisions we make every day is:

Where do I put my effort?

This decision is necessary practically every time we encounter a new problem, from trivial things to serious matters.

Daniel Kahneman convinced me that it is good to switch on the ‘slow brain’ to avoid gross mistakes in unfamiliar situations [6]. So I avoid making important decisions on the spot.

But the process of deciding what is important and what is not, and then putting effort into the things that matter, is very costly.

So during the day I want to keep my energy for these things and not drain my battery on unimportant decisions.

And this brings me to my main hypothesis about AI recommendations:

The problem is not that AI influences our decisions. The problem is that we try to make thousands of unimportant decisions ourselves, and as a result we have no energy left for the ones that really matter.

Too much choice can overwhelm us

This is not just intuition. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argued that too many options can increase stress and dissatisfaction, lead to decision paralysis, and leave us with the feeling that we could have chosen better. Later research suggests that this effect is not universal, but is more likely under certain conditions, particularly when decisions are difficult or our preferences are uncertain [5].

Paradoxically, more choice does not always mean more happiness.

There is no one perfect face cream. There is no one perfect restaurant. There is no one perfect holiday destination. Most often there are 20 very good choices and 100 good-enough choices. Either way, you have to choose something.

AI can simply reduce the cognitive cost.

GPS does not take away our freedom to move, a calculator does not take away our ability to count, and a washing machine does not take away our ability to wash clothes.

AI can take over thousands of small decisions.

Mark Zuckerberg wore grey T-shirts for years, and Barack Obama deliberately limited everyday choices such as what to wear. Both said they did not want to waste attention on trivial decisions when they had more important ones to make. Not because they were unable to choose, but because attention and cognitive energy are limited.

If we try to optimise every small decision ourselves, we will run out of time and energy for the questions that really matter.

The biggest threat is not that AI will choose a cream for you.

The biggest threat is that you will spend your whole life and attention on thousands of small decisions and have no space left for the fundamental ones, like for example:

• How do I want to live?

• Where do I want to live?

• Who do I want to spend my life with?

• What is important to me?

• What kind of person do I want to be?

Maybe real freedom is not about choosing everything yourself.

Maybe real freedom is about preserving your energy for choosing what really matters.

The most important skill of the 21st century

It is not resistance to manipulation. It is not even critical thinking.

Perhaps one of the most important skills is the ability to distinguish trivial decisions from fundamental ones.

Because not all decisions deserve the same amount of energy.

References

[1] Youyou, W., Kosinski, M. & Stillwell, D. (2015). Computer-based personality judgments are more accurate than those made by humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(4), 1036–1040. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418680112

[2] Wood, W., Quinn, J. M., & Kashy, D. A. (2002). Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1281–1297. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1281

[3] Pessiglione, M., Blain, B., Wiehler, A., & Naik, S. (2025). Origins and consequences of cognitive fatigue. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 29(8), 730–749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.02.005

[4] Leong, R. L. F., & Chee, M. W. L. (2023). Understanding the need for sleep to improve cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 27–57. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-032620-034127

[5] Chernev, A., Böckenholt, U., & Goodman, J. (2015). Choice overload: A conceptual review and meta-analysis. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(2), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2014.08.002

[6] Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.