Education in the Age of AI? When Cognition Becomes Transaction

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming education by automating the generation, evaluation, and synthesis of academic work. While these developments promise unprecedented efficiency, they raise a fundamental question: what remains of education when cognition itself is increasingly delegated to artificial systems? This paper argues that AI introduces a structural shift from education as a process of internal cognitive development to education as a transactional loop of delegated cognition. In this loop, teachers use AI to generate instructional material and assessments, students use AI to produce responses, and teachers use AI to evaluate and provide feedback—which students may again process through AI. As a result, the learner risks becoming a coordinator of cognitive transactions rather than the primary site of cognition. The paper introduces four interrelated concepts to describe this transformation: cognitive transaction, the hollowing of the learner, the disintermediation of the teacher, and role collapse. Drawing on constructivist learning theory, distributed cognition, philosophy of technology, and critical education scholarship, the paper situates these concepts within existing theoretical traditions while identifying their distinct contribution. The paper concludes by proposing that the central challenge of education in the age of AI is not merely how to integrate artificial intelligence, but how to preserve the learner as the primary locus of understanding.