Glossary
Deskilling
Deskilling is the reduction of the skill a role requires when parts of it are automated. Unlike skill atrophy, which happens to an individual, deskilling happens to the job itself.
In more detail
Deskilling is an old concept from labour economics, describing how automation restructures work rather than simply removing it. A role is decomposed, the parts that can be automated are, and what remains asks less of the person doing it — often while producing more output.
The distinction from skill atrophy is worth holding onto, because the remedies differ. Atrophy is individual and reversible through practice. Deskilling is structural: if the role no longer requires the judgement, no amount of personal discipline restores the context in which that judgement was exercised daily.
This is the level at which the individual measurement IMPRINT provides runs out. A Drift Score can tell you your own capability is changing. It cannot tell you whether the work available to you still asks for it.