[Between delegation and loss: the cognitive cost of artificial intelligence.]

This article examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on cognitive processes and clinical practice, highlighting a delicate balance between benefits and risks. While AI enhances productivity and access to information, it also promotes cognitive offloading and deskilling, the progressive loss of clinical, decision-making, and interpersonal skills, exacerbated by automation bias and reliance. Several studies indicate reduced cognitive activity and autonomous performance when AI is heavily used, despite its proven effectiveness in diagnostic support. They are necessary mitigation strategies to preserve critical thinking and models of human-AI integration to save human clinical judgment. AI should not replace clinicians but support them, keeping core competencies such as critical thinking, empathy, and responsibility at the center.