GenAI Helps Students Think Fast. It's Time Universities Teach Them to Think Slow

The real opportunity with AI in education isn't automation. It's building the habits of deeper thinking.

- Gabrielle Chan

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman proposes that we think using two systems: one fast and intuitive, the other slow and deliberate.

System 1 handles familiar tasks automatically — like solving 2 × 2 or sensing a friend's mood. System 2 kicks in for effortful mental work — like evaluating the logic of an argument or finding the right words to comfort someone.

While this summary barely scratches the surface of Professor Kahneman's work, his framework offers a useful lens to examine a growing tension in higher education: the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

University is fundamentally about learning — and learning demands system 2 thinking. Students must pause, reflect, and actively make sense of information.

But with the introduction of AI, increasingly, the temptation is to bypass this learning process. AI provides fluent, polished responses that feel correct. Under pressure, many students engage with AI the way system 1 thinks — quickly, intuitively, and without scrutiny.

And if we are not careful, students may begin to use GenAI as a shortcut without developing the analytical muscle that education is supposed to build.

Before AI use becomes autopilot, students have to be trained to engage with it deliberately.

Take the calculator as an example. When it was first introduced into schools in the 1970s, it required conscious effort: how to use it, when to use it, and what to input. Students had to deliberately practice with it, guided by teachers and curriculum structures, before it became routine.

Over time, using a calculator shifted from system 2 to system 1. But crucially, that shift was supported by a deep prior understanding of mathematical principles and guidance from experts at the time.