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I’ve been soaking up a string of absolutely gorgeous sunny days here in Utah. Definitely a reminder of that old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb. And while I’ve been basking in the sunshine, what have I been reading?
There is an AI in teammate
A working paper by several business school academics, including Ethan Mollick and Procter & Gamble staff, explores how AI is affecting collaboration within the company.
we designed a large-scale field experiment exploring three main dimensions. 1) Does GenAI provide the performance gains traditionally attributed to teamwork? 2) Does GenAI enable a broadening of expertise even when employees lack certain specialized knowledge and skills? Finally, 3) Can GenAI offer the kind of social engagement that we typically associate with human collaboration? Put simply, to what extent can AI be treated as a "cybernetic teammate," rather than as yet another software tool?
More than 700 participants involved in Procter & Gamble’s standardized product development process were assigned to one of four groups.
Individuals working without GenAI
Individuals working with GenAI
Two-person teams working without GenAI
Two-person teams working with GenAI
The researchers evaluated the quality and nature of the ideas produced, the time it took to generate them, and participants’ perceptions of the process. The results are striking, though still early and suggestive (more on that later).
Individuals using AI matched or even outperformed teams without AI, suggesting that AI has the potential to replicate some of the key benefits of collaboration.
Working with AI appears to break down functional silos and help individuals and teams generate more well-rounded ideas. Without AI, technical participants tended to focus on technical solutions, while commercially oriented participants leaned toward commercial ideas. But individuals and teams using AI produced ideas that blended both perspectives.
Participants who used AI also reported more positive emotional responses, suggesting that AI can partially fulfill the social and motivational role typically played by human teammates.
And notably, those working with AI generated their ideas more quickly.
But the authors of the study argue that their findings show that AI doesn’t just augment human work, it also fundamentally reshapes how we work and how knowledge is created.
