2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The availability and increasing integration of generative AI tools have transformed computing education. While AI in education presents opportunities, it also raises new concerns about how these powerful know-it-all AI tools, which are becoming widespread, impact cognitive skill development among students. Cognitive skills are essential for academic success and professional competence. It relates to the ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, synthesize information and more. The extensive use of these AI tools can aid in cognitive offloading, freeing up cognitive resources to be used in other tasks and activities. However, cognitive offloading may inadvertently lead to diminishing cognitive involvement in learning and related activities when using AI tools. Understanding cognitive skills' impact in the era of AI is essential to align curricular design with evolving workforce demands and changing work environment and processes. To address this concern and to develop an understanding of how the importance of cognitive skills changes with increasing integration of AI, we conducted a researcher-monitored and regulated quantitative survey of undergraduate computing students. We examined students' perceptions of cognitive skills across three temporal frames: prior to widespread AI adoption (past), current informal and formal use of AI in learning contexts (present), and future with even more AI integration in professional environments (future). In the study, students rated the importance of 11 cognitive skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, attention control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Our analysis reveals that students expect all 11 cognitive skills to be of diminishing importance in the future, when AI use and integration increases. Although literature and educators often emphasize the enduring importance of cognitive skills in computing education, our investigation suggests that students may view these skills as less necessary in an AI-rich environment. Survey data indicate that computing students anticipate a significantly diminished role for critical cognitive skills, such as problem solving, abstract reasoning, and cognitive flexibility, in the future. This perception risks under-preparing students for professional contexts where cognitive skills remain crucial. The importance of these skills is likely to continue, even more so with the AI presence, as computing learners and professionals need to be able to assess AI outcomes and use them appropriately. Our findings highlight the need for educational interventions that explicitly reinforce cognitive skill development within learning environments that are now often relying on AI.