The study also identified two patterns of successful AI use: "Centaurs", who divided and delegated tasks between themselves and the AI, and "Cyborgs", who integrated their workflow with the AI. The researchers suggest that the capabilities of AI create a "jagged technological frontier", where AI can easily accomplish some tasks but struggles with others of similar difficulty.
Key takeaways:
- The study examines the performance implications of AI on realistic, complex, and knowledge-intensive tasks, using a pre-registered experiment involving 758 consultants from Boston Consulting Group.
- The capabilities of AI create a “jagged technological frontier” where some tasks are easily done by AI, while others, though seemingly similar in difficulty level, are outside the current capability of AI.
- For a set of 18 realistic consulting tasks within the frontier of AI capabilities, consultants using AI were significantly more productive and produced significantly higher quality results.
- Two distinctive patterns of successful AI use by humans emerged along a spectrum of human-AI integration. One set of consultants acted as “Centaurs,” dividing and delegating their solution-creation activities to the AI or to themselves. Another set of consultants acted more like “Cyborgs,” completely integrating their task flow with the AI and continually interacting with the technology.