Boston Consulting Group gave AI tools to hundreds of its individual contributors in a study. What happened next offers a window into an AI future.
Macall B. Polay/HBO
When I think of white collar workers, I think first of consultants.
Armed with MBAs and case studies, these consultants parachute into the biggest companies in the world to find efficiencies, sharpen strategy, and justify tough decisions.
There's been a lot of talk recently around how AI might impact these kinds of so-called knowledge workers. That's why I was fascinated to see the results of a study that gave hundreds of consultants access to AI.
The experiment involved 758 individual contributors at Boston Consulting Group. One group had no access to AI, and two groups were given access to GPT-4 with different approaches. The takeaways:
The study supports earlier research that's found AI increases productivity overall while elevating the less experienced and lower performers most.
The findings also hint at how AI might impact knowledge workers everywhere. After all, the management consultant advising your CEO might just have been a part of this study.