AI and its potential impacts on society is a common topic in the TDB office. Many of us are wondering about AI – how and when to use it – and whether it poses a threat or an opportunity to their industry. According to a recent study by BCG and Harvard Business School, AI isn’t going directly to take our jobs anytime soon, but someone who knows both how and when to use it might.

The study examined the performance of consultants using GPT4 compared to a control group that didn’t. The study found that consultants using AI:

• were more productive, completing 12% more tasks, 25% faster; and
• produced 40% higher quality results than the control group.

At the same time, when AI was applied to tasks falling outside the “frontier of AI capabilities”, the study found a 19% drop in correct solutions. Those who relied too much on the AI were more likely to make mistakes.

Perhaps a day will come where we can sit back and let AI do everything for us, but for now it seems the real leaders in an AI-augmented-world will be those who understand just as much when not to consult Chat GPT as when to.