Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier

For 18 different tasks selected to be realistic samples of the kinds of work done at an elite consulting company, consultants using ChatGPT-4 outperformed those who did not.

Consultants using AI finished 12.2% more tasks on average, completed tasks 25.1% more quickly, and produced 40% higher quality results than those without.

AI can be deceptive if you don't know where the frontier lies, says Andrew Keen .

Keen: Consultants with AI access did significantly better, whether we briefly introduced them to AI first .

Keen says the consultants who scored the worst when assessed at the start of the experiment had the biggest jump in their performance, 43% when they got to use AI .

Keen and Keen: When the AI is very good, humans have no reason to work hard.

In our study at BCG , centaurs would do the work they were strongest at themselves, and then hand off tasks to the AI .

On the other hand, Cyborgs blend machine and person, integrating the two deeply.

Cyborgs don't just delegate tasks; they intertwine their efforts with AI , moving back and forth over the jagged frontier.

This is how I suggest approaching using AI for writing, for example.