Multiple matching
You are going to read an extract. For questions 1-10, choose from the sections (A-E). The sections may be chosen more than once.
Living with AI Assistants: Helpful Shortcut or Quiet Trap?
The impact of AI tools on work and study habits
The Productivity Promise
When AI assistants first appeared in my office, the mood was almost festive. People who normally groaned at admin tasks suddenly volunteered to draft reports, summarise meeting notes and reword awkward emails. I admit I was enthusiastic too: an hour spent wrestling with a blank page became fifteen minutes of editing a decent first version. The surprising part was not that the tools were fast, but that they made some colleagues bolder. Junior staff who used to stay silent in meetings began sending clear follow-up messages and proposing ideas, because they weren’t terrified of sounding clumsy. Still, the productivity story is not as simple as “AI saves time”. The fastest results came when we already knew what we wanted to say. When the task was genuinely unclear—defining a strategy, evaluating a risk, choosing a tone—the AI produced fluent paragraphs that looked confident while avoiding the hard decisions. It felt like progress, but sometimes it was just motion.
Which section/person describes junior colleagues gaining confidence to contribute because technology helped them express themselves more clearly?
In which section does the writer suggest that apparent progress can be misleading when the real challenge is deciding what to do or say?
Which section/person expresses a balanced view, rejecting both the idea that AI is entirely harmful and the belief that it is automatically beneficial?
Which section/person mentions that learners may hand over the thinking process itself, producing work that looks well organised but lacks real judgement?
In which section does the writer say that completely prohibiting these tools is impractical, but believing they always help is naïve?
Which section/person highlights that AI errors can be particularly persuasive because they are delivered with confidence and even fabricated sources?
Which section/person describes how time saved by generating text can be cancelled out by the need to verify information carefully?
In which section does the writer contrast the push for rapid output with the need for slower, responsible procedures before publishing or sending work externally?
Which section/person warns that frequent reliance on AI drafts may gradually erase individuality in style, even if the results are technically acceptable?
Which section/person describes subtle workplace pressure where increased output by some employees makes others feel compelled to adopt the tool, and questions whether staff truly benefit from the time saved?
0 of 10 answered