I Trusted AI More When the Work Felt Familiar

I didn’t trust AI more because it was smarter than me. I trusted it more because the work felt familiar. That’s the part that surprised me. The tasks I knew best — the ones I’d done dozens of times — were the ones where I questioned AI the least. Familiarity created comfort, and comfort lowered my guard. Familiar Work Feels Low Risk When a task feels routine, it doesn’t trigger the same scrutiny as something new. I told myself: “I can spot mistakes here.” “I know what this should look like.” “If something’s off, I’ll catch it.” So when AI produced answers that aligned with my expectations, I moved quickly. The output felt right because it matched a mental template I already had. That’s where trust slipped in — quietly and confidently. Familiarity Amplifies Confirmation Bias AI didn’t introduce new ideas. It reinforced the ones I already believed. Because the work was familiar: I looked for alignment, not challenge I skimmed for red flags instead of testing assumptions I accepted struct