Prompt Dependency: Cognitive Outsourcing, AI Reliance, and Expertise Performance Among Generative AI Users

Generative artificial intelligence integration into professional workflows alter the landscape of cognitive labor and knowledge production. Utilizing a qualitative study of 45 knowledge workers across technology and creative sectors, this research investigates the shifting boundaries of professional autonomy. We propose the notion of Prompt Dependency, defined as the systemic erosion of self-directed analytical capacity resulting from the habitual delegation of complex problem-solving to large language models. Users they perceive these tools as efficiency enhancers, but our analysis reveals an inversion of agency where the mastery of algorithmic interaction begins to supersede the mastery of the domain itself. Findings indicate that participants experience reduced critical synthesis and increased reliance on automated heuristics. Further observations it suggest the atrophy of foundational domain skills and a normalization of algorithmic output as a baseline for professional truth. By mapping these dimensions, we demonstrate that the efficiency gains of AI are paradoxically tethered to a long-term degradation of individual expertise. These results suggest that organizational policies must prioritize cognitive resilience or human-in-the-loop verification to mitigate the risks of structural deskilling in the age of automated cognition.