Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, business owners and employees have been exploring ways to use it to improve productivity. A Harvard-led study found that hundreds of consultants at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) who used generative artificial intelligence GPT-4 performed better on the frequency, speed and quality of tasks they completed than those who did not. Peers, their performance increased by 40%.
The study also found that AI has a balancing effect in terms of skills. Advisors with the lowest initial performance showed the most significant performance improvements when incorporating AI into their workflows, with an average increase of 43%. At the same time, even the best-performing advisors saw some performance gains, albeit relatively small ones.
The study found that individuals who use AI for tasks beyond their capabilities are more likely to make mistakes by overtrusting the AI.
Additionally, the study identified two emerging patterns of AI use among some of the company’s skilled advisors, which the researchers dubbed “centaur” and “cyborg” behavior. These people have found ways to seamlessly integrate AI and human work, leveraging the strengths of each. Centaur maintains a clear distinction between human and AI tasks, choosing based on their perception of each’s strengths and capabilities. In contrast, cyborgs blend humans and machines in most tasks.
It is noted that the study also found that some unexpected tasks, such as idea generation, are relatively simple for AI, while some tasks that appear to be simple for machines, such as basic mathematics, are difficult for large language models. (LLM) poses a challenge.
