In a collaborative effort with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard, led by Karim Lakhani, has conducted research to examine the impact of AI on productivity and quality among knowledge workers. The study involved assessing the performance of 758 consultants, representing 7% of the company’s individual contributor workforce, across various tasks including creativity, analytical thinking, writing proficiency, and persuasiveness. The results showed that for tasks at the forefront of AI, the use of ChatGPT-4 significantly improved performance, enhancing speed by 25%, human-rated performance by 40%, and task completion by 12%. The research introduces the concept of a “jagged technological frontier” wherein AI excels in some tasks but falls short in others. The study also identified two distinct approaches to integrating AI into workflows: “Centaurs,” who divided tasks between themselves and AI, and “Cyborgs,” who fully integrated AI into their workflow. The paper highlights the need to evaluate different configurations and combinations of humans and AI for different tasks, rather than simply considering whether to adopt AI or not.
https://d3.harvard.edu/navigating-the-jagged-technological-frontier/