As Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolves – there are interesting findings on the work or job side, which all of us should take note.
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The AI Index Report 2024 by Stanford University Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) found in summary that AI makes workers more productive and leads to higher quality work.
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A meta-review by Microsoft, which aggregated studies comparing the performance of workers using Microsoft Copilot or GitHub’s Copilot— LLM-based productivity-enhancing tools—with those who did not, found that Copilot users completed tasks in 26% to 73% less time than their counterparts without AI access.
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Similarly, a Harvard Business School study revealed that consultants with access to GPT-4 increased their productivity on a selection of consulting tasks by 12.2%, speed by 25.1%, and quality by 40.0%, compared to a control group without AI access. Likewise, National Bureau of Economic Research reported that call-center agents using AI handled 14.2% more calls per hour than those not using AI.
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A study on the impact of AI in legal analysis showed that teams with GPT-4 access significantly improved in efficiency and achieved notable quality improvements in various legal tasks, especially contract drafting.
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Meanwhile, these studies also demonstrated AI’s potential to bridge the skill gap between low- and high-skilled workers. A Harvard Business School study, both groups of consultants experienced performance boosts after adopting AI, with notably larger gains for lower-skilled consultants using AI compared to higher-skilled consultants. 
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A set of tasks for participants of varying skill levels: Lower-skilled participants exhibited a 43.0% improvement, while higher-skilled participants showed a 16.5% increase.
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The Report found that eventhough AI tends to enhance quality and productivity, overreliance on the technology can impair worker performance. A study focused on professional recruiters reviewing résumés found that receiving any AI assistance improved task accuracy by 0.6 points compared to not receiving AI assistance.
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However, recruiters who were provided with “good AI”—believed to be high-performing—actually performed worse than those who received “bad AI,” which was capable but known to make errors. The study theorizes that recruiters using “good AI” became complacent, overly trusting the AI’s results, unlike those using “bad AI,” who were more vigilant in scrutinizing AI output.
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Although AI can assist with legal tasks, there are also widespread reports of LLM hallucinations being especially pervasive in legal tasks. Some other studies caution that using AI without proper oversight can lead to diminished performance.