The AI-IARA framework: How to cultivate human agency before artificial intelligence optimizes it a(ny)way

We are the last generation that will influence what wellbeing means before AI systems optimize that definition for us. While AI promises unprecedented scalability in mental health support, emerging evidence reveals a troubling pattern: the systems designed to enhance human flourishing may systematically erode the capacities required to achieve. This paper introduces the AI-IARA framework, identifying six irreducible human capacities essential for wellbeing under algorithmic conditions: Awareness (the ability to detect when AI influences us), Interpretation (the capacity to generate our own meaning from experience), Intention (the ability to choose our own values), Action (the capacity to sustain effortful choices), Relational Agency (the ability to maintain authentic human connection) and Autonomy (the capacity to consciously manage our AI reliance). We further demonstrate how each capacity faces erosion through cognitive offloading, automation bias and attention fragmentation. We conclude by articulating psychology’s evolved role: becoming architects of human agency under algorithmic conditions.