The Impact of Artificial Intelligent Tools on Decision Making Behavioral and Neural Dynamics

Decision-making is a multifaceted cognitive process influenced by task complexity, information availability, individual cognitive strategies, and environmental settings. Yet, the neural mechanisms guiding everyday choices remain incompletely understood. This gap intensifies when integrating real-time aids, such as artificial intelligence tools (AIT), as cognitive decisionsupport especially for complex and ambiguous problems. This study explores the neural mechanisms of decision-making and examines how AIT influences these processes. Combining behavioral assessments and neurophysiological measurements, we investigate the dynamic interplay between human cognition and AIT through behavioral execution and electroencephalogram (EEG) activity. Experimental data from 54 participants suggest that in low-complexity decision-making, AIT is largely ignored in favor of heuristics. In high-complexity contexts, AIT positively influences decision-making outcomes while also increasing capacity for engagement with a challenging task as registered by EEG cortical activity. This suggests a non-linear effect of AIT in decision-making strategies highlighting its role as a complement to —rather than a replacement of—human cognitive processes.