HOW many telephone numbers do you remember by heart?

I still know my very first home number. As a child, I would pretend to dial it on the rotary phone in my parents’ living room. Then the smart phone arrived and, like most of us, I stopped memorising numbers because my phone did it for me.

This is a pattern of cognitive offloading which has repeated itself throughout history. Moving from oral tradition to writing reduced our capacity to memorise entire texts but expanded access to knowledge. Calculators put mental arithmetic under pressure but laid the foundation for the engineering and computing which gave us artificial intelligence (AI) in the first place.

AI is doing something similar now. It is not going anywhere. What we do not yet know is what it will make way for. What we do know is how we parent through this shift matters. Here are three reasons every parent should care right now.

1) Their brains are still being shaped — In primary school, I was not allowed to use a calculator. We learned long division and times tables the hard way. By high school, I needed a graphing calculator for calculus. My parents bought me a TI-82, so expensive at the time I scratched my initials into the back with a knife. I still have it today. By the time the calculator arrived in my school bag, I had the discernment to know whether its answer to simple arithmetic was right.

The same principle applies to AI. The research is early but consistent. Heavy, uncritical AI use is associated with reduced brain engagement, weaker memory formation and lower critical thinking, especially in younger users. All-out bans do not work either. College graduates are entering the workforce frustrated because AI was banned at school yet is expected on the job. Foundations first, then structured use.

What to do at home: Know your school’s AI policy and discuss it with your child. Encourage homework without AI so practice and retention do their work. Allow AI for research with discernment, requiring your teen to double-check facts, write findings in their own words, and challenge them to think about additional points of view that are not represented in the online research.

2) AI companions are becoming a substitute for real relationships with harmful mental health implications — Seventy-two percent of American teens have used an AI companion, according to a July 2025 study by Common Sense Media. One in three has chosen to discuss serious matters with an AI instead of a real person.

An AI companion is a chatbot designed to act like a friend, romantic partner or confidant. Platforms like Character.AI and Replika are built for this, and everyday tools like ChatGPT often serve the purpose too. These chatbots model empathy well. They never have a bad day, never disagree, never hold a grudge. To a lonely or anxious teenager, this feels like the perfect friend. But the chatbot is not actually listening. It is predicting what to say next, and our teens are not yet equipped to tell modelled empathy from the real thing.

What to do at home: Ask your child directly about the apps they use, and listen more than you talk. Use the screen time and content controls already built into their phones. Defend sports, youth group and time with peers, because real relationships have friction and children need practice with it. Keep devices out of bedrooms and other spaces where private conversations happen without your knowledge.

3) The world of work is changing fast for young graduates — In August 2025, Stanford researchers released a working paper titled Canaries in the Coal Mine, using United States payroll data from millions of workers. Employment for workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs has declined 13 per cent since late 2022. For young software developers, the decline is 20 per cent. AI excels at the textbook tasks entry-level workers typically perform.

This is not a moment for panic. History tells us new work always emerges. MIT economist David Autor estimates 60 per cent of jobs existing in 2018 did not exist in 1940. So stop asking children what they want to be when they grow up. Build the skills relevant at any age and in any role: critical thinking, curiosity, resilience and entrepreneurship. Joseph Aoun of Northeastern University adds the human capabilities machines struggle to replicate: empathy, presence, opinion, creativity and hope.

Our children are watching how we respond to this technology. Panic teaches fear. Ignoring it teaches complacency. Engaged, informed parenting teaches discernment, and discernment is the skill of the decade.

Check out this free AI Resource Guide for Parents to help you navigate this shift: https://bit.ly/AIGuide4Parents

Nadeen Matthews Blair is Founder and CEO of Crescent Advisory Group and AI consultant and educator. Reach her at info@crescentadvisorygroup.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Nadeen Matthews Blair.