AI can help people perform better at work

Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton, wrote this piece where he summarises findings from a new research paper he co-authored examining the impact of AI on management consulting work.

What’s going on here:

AI can help people perform better at work.

What does this mean?

Researchers did experiments where they gave some consultants access to AI, like ChatGPT, and others didn’t use AI. The consultants using AI completed more tasks faster and produced higher quality work. AI was like a “skill leveller” - less skilled consultants improved the most with AI. But consultants also made more mistakes when relying completely on AI instead of thinking for themselves. The best approach was for consultants to work as “centaurs” or “cyborgs”, meaning they strategically combined the best of human thinking and AI capabilities.

Why should I care?

This shows AI will likely change how we work. Many jobs could get done faster and better with AI assistance. But we need to be careful not to blindly rely on AI and lose our skills. If we learn to use AI as a tool, while still thinking critically, we can get the benefits of AI without the downsides. This could help make work more productive and interesting. But we need to start figuring out the right way to use AI because it’s already here and more advanced AI systems are coming.