By Mitchell Barrick | Reviewed by Irfan Ahmad
In 2026, it’s fairly common for people in most professions to use AI to help complete a task, draft an email, and even “dumb something down.” But when does AI tap out and human guidance becomes necessary, or even better?
That’s the question a recent survey by language learning platform, Preply, set out to answer. Preply asked over 5,000 working professionals across nine different countries (US, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Japan, and Argentina) about their experience with AI-assistance and found that the majority of people, 88%, use AI for learning, but more than half, 63%, didn’t feel they truly learned something and instead simply felt “busy” learning.
So if AI is helping people solve or speed up various tasks and problems, why aren’t people retaining the information AI is giving them? Perhaps human accountability is the answer?
Why and When Is Human Guidance Necessary?
Human guidance offers something AI can’t, accountability. Let’s go back to when you were in school. Did you ever use flashcards to learn biology definitions? If you did, you know that doing them with another person was slightly more difficult than just running through them on your own. Having to explain what the nucleus is to someone who has the definition in front of them is unforgiving, while explaining it in your mind with no one to judge you allows you to shy away from any mistakes you might have made.
Now, imagine you were trying to do this with AI as your study partner. If you fumble the definition, AI will typically correct you but it won’t make sure that you’re asked that definition again thereafter. You’d have to prompt the AI tool to do this, and if you’re not disciplined enough, you might not review that definition enough to pass your test. This is why it’s not surprising to see that Preply’s survey found human guidance and accountability to be the top diver of learning consistency.
This is where human guidance, or more importantly, accountability, becomes necessary. AI is beneficial for a lot of things and it has many capabilities, but at the end of the day, it’s only as good as the prompts you feed it.
Who Needs Human Guidance While Using AI To Learn?
Generally, everyone could benefit from human guidance when using AI to learn. In fact, Preply found that 75% of respondents trusted a learning experience combining AI and human expertise for long-term progress, while only 11% preferred a fully self-directed AI approach.
Learning doesn’t stop when you get your degree. For most working people, continued education is part of the job. It seems that there is always something new to learn whether that's a new topic or even just a new way to perform an old task. The survey asked respondents why they use AI to learn and found that while 41% wanted to improve their performance at work (the number one answer), 26% also wanted to learn because they were personally interested in a topic.
Let’s use the increasingly popular game of Mahjong as an example. Human guidance isn’t necessarily needed to learn the rules of this strategic tile game, but human guidance is needed to enforce those rules. Without human guidance, players could accidentally play two tiles that weren’t a real match, which could alter the game significantly. But if a human is paying attention and sees the mistake, they can enforce the rules and ultimately make sure the game is played the right way.
Where Should People Seek Human Guidance From?
Who you’re getting the human guidance from matters as well. If you’re the speaker for a presentation on something complicated, you’d want someone who knows a bit about the subject to be the one giving feedback on your mock presentation. This is why having a colleague or mentor provide feedback on your presentation is important.
Furthermore, let’s go back to the Mah Jongg example above. Human guidance while playing the game is irrelevant if the person offering the guidance doesn’t know the rules. It would be like applying the rules of Go Fish to a game of Uno.
This applies across any topic you’re seeking guidance on. The person giving the guidance needs to be knowledgeable and expert on the topic to offer the guidance.
How Does Human Guidance Work Alongside AI?
As you’ve likely noticed throughout this article, human guidance and AI-assisted learning can work alongside one another and ultimately compliment each other. Afterall, the survey found that 3 out of 5 (60%) daily AI users say they’re learning faster than expected, compared with only 3 out of 10 (31%) who never use AI.
It’s apparent that AI is giving users easy access to information, explaining nuanced topics in more digestible ways, and overall speeding up productivity. But those things shouldn’t come at the expense of accountability.
Two out of three of Preply’s survey respondents agreed that having access to information doesn’t automatically lead to progress. Therefore, AI can be a good option to get started and set the foundation, but human guidance is necessary to establish accountability and true understanding of the subject matter.
About author: Mitchell Barrick is a writer and researcher with over 15 years of experience. He has written for various industries over the years, but has been focused on tech writing and research recently. If he isn't putting together an article or analyzing data, you can find him cooking away in the kitchen and trying new recipes.
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