AI/Paper/25/03/Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier

• Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality

  • Organization Science (INFORMS), March 2025

  • Key Findings

    • Preregistered field experiment with 758 BCG consultants using GPT-4
    • Within AI's capability frontier: +12.2% tasks completed, 25.1% faster, higher quality — benefits largest for lower-skilled workers
    • Beyond AI's capability frontier: workers with AI access were 19% less likely to produce correct solutions — they failed to recognize AI's limitations and became overly reliant on its output
    • Introduces the "jagged technological frontier" concept: seemingly similar tasks fall on opposite sides of where AI helps vs. harms performance

  • Authors

    • Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon, Karim R. Lakhani — Harvard, MIT, Wharton, University of Warwick, BCG

  • Links

    • Cited in Person/Ethan Mollick/Blog/26/05/Choosing to Stay Human