Generative AI as the second wave of cognitive externalization

Purpose: to clarify the theoretical and methodological grounds for interpreting generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) as the second wave of cognitive externalization and to reveal the organizational and economic and marketing consequences of this process.

Methods: the study is designed as a systematized conceptual and integrative review and uses PRISMA logic to ensure transparency of the source search, cleaning and selection. Two bodies of literature – on writing and on GenAI – are compared in international article databases; an additional full-text control search was conducted in the Russian Science Citation Index. The sources were analyzed taking into account their theoretical density, cognitive function and suitability for economic and marketing interpretation.

Results: cognitive offloading is shown as a mechanism for reducing the load on memory, attention and primary information processing, whereas cognitive externalization describes a broader transfer of cognitive functions into external symbolic, material and computational systems. Writing established external memory and repeated access to meaning; GenAI becomes involved in intermediate operations of knowledge work: task framing, criteria formation, generation of alternatives, argumentation and preparation of a preliminary decision framework. Thus, not only the speed of text production changes, but also the distribution of responsibility for task framing, result verification and choice.

Conclusions and Relevance: the article proposes an interpretive framework that allows considering GenAI as external procedural mediation. For marketing, this means changes in professional competences, work with market information, choice interfaces and value formation mechanisms. The practical implications require further empirical testing in organizations, marketing departments and sectoral markets.

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