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• Experts say kids in AI era will be incapable of thinking, working without digital help
By Ngozi Nwoke
Researchers estimate that by 2030, more than 70 per cent of children born in the technology and AI era will not be able to think by themselves or be creative without digital assistance.
The number is a projection based on current usage patterns, classroom adoption rates, and how quickly generative AI has moved from university labs into primary school homework. The concern is not that children will use technology. The concern is that they will never learn what it feels like to think without it. This is a preview of the world many children will inherit by 2030.
Civil society groups across Nigeria and across the Global South are already raising the alarm about the kind of adults this generation will become. They worry about a future workforce that can prompt but cannot reason, that can generate but cannot originate.
The question being asked in parent-teacher meetings, in NGO policy briefs, and in WhatsApp groups is simple: if a child never sits with a difficult problem, will they ever learn how to sit with a difficult person?
Psychologists are also warning against the pattern and watching the early signs. Catherine Okai, a child and adolescent psychologist based in Abuja, said the risks go beyond grades.
“When a child depends on AI for every answer, we start to see virtues like patience, the ability to manage conflict, and empathy erode. AI gives answers in two seconds so the child will grow not to have patience. The child never experiences the discomfort of waiting, and that discomfort is where persistence is built.
“They haven’t practised negotiating in the midst of conflict with a sibling or anyone so they tend to become aggressive or even violent. They will lack empathy and emotional intelligence because they don’t know how to read people’s faces, tones, and silences.”
Okai describes children who become irritable when Wi-Fi is slow, who shut down when asked to explain their reasoning without the app, and who struggle to collaborate because they are used to a tool that never says no and never disagrees.
“The brain is a muscle. If you never lift the weight yourself, it atrophies. We are seeing the early signs of that atrophy in attention spans and in emotional regulation.”
She said parents and teachers can still change the trajectory, but it requires deliberate practice. She recommends three strategies that can be used in any home, with or without money for new apps.
“First, build in productive struggle. Give a child a problem that is slightly too hard and do not rescue them for 10 minutes. Let them be frustrated. That is where resilience comes from.
“Second, practise human conversation daily. No devices at dinner. Ask open questions. ‘Why do you think that character did that?’ ‘What would you do differently?’ You are training them to hold an idea in their head.
“Third, create things without templates. Drawing, storytelling, building with blocks, music. Things where there is no right answer for AI to give. That is where creativity lives.”
She also warns parents to watch for signs of over-dependence, noting that a child who cannot start homework without opening an app, a child who becomes anxious when they cannot use Google to do something immediately; a child who avoids group work and a child who cannot describe how they feel without using emojis, is a ticking bomb for catastrophe at adulthood.
Civil society groups also asked parents, teachers, and technology policymakers to raise children who can think on their own and be creative by themselves, even while living in a world where thinking can be outsourced in seconds.
Cordelia Oduah, a mother of two, said her that her 10-year-old son, Damilare, uses YouTube Kids for science videos and ChatGPT to rephrase his essays.
“At first I was happy. His grades improved. He finishes homework in 20 minutes. But then I asked him to tell me a story without his tablet, just from his head. He froze. He said, ‘Mummy, can I ask AI to give me ideas?’ That scared me.”
Now she has rules. No AI before he has written a first draft by hand. One hour of device-free play every day. “I want him to be tech-savvy, yes. But I also want him to know he can trust his own brain.”
Nkechi Obi, has a seven-year-old daughter. The issue is not just that she is becoming tech savvy. It is the character she is becoming. “These AI things answer everything so fast. But life does not answer fast. People do not answer fast. If my daughter gets used to everything being instant, what happens when she fails a test and needs to try again? I tell her, your brain is the first tool. The phone is the second.”
Moses Fagbire is a father of a 12-year-old daughter. He said his house is full of gadgets, and his daughter is more fluent in prompts than he is. But he is worried about balance.
“At school now, teachers even tell them to use AI to brainstorm. So I cannot just ban it. That would make her fall behind. My compromise is to separate the work. We have ‘technology and AI days’ and ‘No technology and AI days.’
“On No-AI days, she has to read a book, summarise it to me, and we debate it. She hated it at first, then she started to enjoy it. I see her get proud when she comes up with an idea I didn’t expect. That pride is what I’m protecting.”
The scale of the challenge is magnified in Africa because of the digital divide. According to an Afrobarometer policy paper from August 2025 covering 39 countries, only 18 per cent of respondents personally own a computer, 15 per cent have household access, 47 per cent own a smartphone, and 31 per cent use the internet daily.
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That means millions of children are still offline. But the children who are online are often online all the time, and often without guidance. The gap is not just about devices. It is about digital literacy, about who teaches children how to use the tools once they have them.
Technology experts also called for AI to be designed as a tool that strengthens children’s reasoning, not a shortcut that replaces it.
Adeola Lasisi, a software engineer, said the biggest risk is not that AI will make children less intelligent, but that people may gradually stop exercising the intelligence they already have.
Citing a 2026 UK government report based on Ofcom research, Lasisi noted that 53 per cent of children aged eight to 15 in the UK had used AI for research, learning, translation, drafting, and creative work.
He noted that a 2025 study in the British Journal of Educational Technology of 808 undergraduates, also found that students with stronger critical-thinking skills used generative AI more reflectively, while those with greater trust in AI used it more thoughtlessly
He added that a 2025 meta-analysis of 57 studies found positive effects of generative AI on academic achievement and higher-order thinking, but no significant effect on metacognition, the ability to monitor one’s own thinking.
Lasisi urged tech companies, educators, and parents to build AI that “scaffolds thinking rather than simply provide answers,” and for schools to teach AI literacy alongside traditional literacy.
Olufemi Ayilara, Principal Technical Architect at the UK Department for Education and Founder of Thrive-In-Tech, echoed the concern.
He warned that if children reach for AI before working through problems themselves, they may fail to develop judgement and reasoning skills.
“The real risk is that a generation could grow up without spending enough time wrestling with difficult problems,” he said.
Ayilara called for AI products to slow the child down, ask questions back, and offer hints before solutions, and for global child-protection standards and independent research on AI’s impact on learning.
Solarin Ayomide, Founder of Jekacode Africa, said developers have a responsibility to design AI that promotes curiosity and problem-solving.
At Jekacode, he said, training incorporates African languages, including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Nigerian Pidgin, so children can learn in familiar cultural contexts.
“Technology education must also become more relevant to the environment in which children live,” Ayomide said.
He added that children should be taught to question AI answers, verify information, and identify bias.
Ayomide warned that dependence on AI could weaken skills in communication, patience, and judgement, and could leave Africa technologically and intellectually dependent if systems are built only around foreign languages and experiences.
“The objective should be to ensure that AI helps children become more capable thinkers, more creative problem-solvers, and more confident human beings,” Ayomide said.
Also speaking, Oluwaseun Oluboyo, Chief Technology Architect at ipNX Nigeria Limited, said generative AI will reshape work and creativity, but stakeholders must act deliberately to protect critical thinking, especially among children.
Oluboyo noted that advances in computational systems have given machines the ability to understand language, audio, and video and to generate new content from simple prompts.
“We live in an age of information and tools. This is generative AI, and it is here to stay. AI makes work easier and faster, creates new industries, and helps unleash human creativity. Ideas we’ve always had can now be brought to life through technology.”
He, however, warned about over-reliance on AI tools. According to him, the growing dependence on chatbots and virtual assistants risks weakening people’s ability to think critically, remember information, and be creative.
The concern, he said, is greater for children who will grow up with AI, the internet, and devices as a normal part of life.
“We should expose children to these tools early, but intentionally. First, they must learn the basics which are language, reading, writing, arithmetic, social skills, and civic duties. AI and the internet should be used by parents and teachers as tools to support learning, not replace it.”
Oluboyo outlined shared responsibilities for safe AI adoption, “Parents and teachers must guide children’s use of technology; technology companies must provide age-appropriate tools and content; governments must set clear rules and foster collaboration; and civil society must hold all parties accountable.
“If we work together, we can make it a safe and enabling place for young people and our future,” he concluded.
