Is AI building your skill, or quietly replacing it?
When Harvard and BCG watched 244 consultants work with AI, three shapes appeared. Two of them grow. One does not, and the people in it rarely notice.
Answer twelve everyday scenarios honestly and see which one you are becoming.
~60%Cyborg
Works with AI in a tight back-and-forth. Drafts, challenges, refines. Builds AI skill and keeps domain skill.
~30%Centaur
Keeps a clear line. Decides the shape and the judgement, hands AI the sub-tasks, checks the result. Deepens domain expertise.
~10%Self-automator
Hands the task over and forwards the output. Develops neither. Looks productive right up until the output is wrong.
SCENARIO 1 OF 12
Pick the one closest to what you actually do
Where the shapes come from. Dell'Acqua, Mollick and colleagues ran a randomised experiment with 758 BCG consultants in 2023. With GPT-4, people finished 12% more tasks 25% faster inside what AI does well, and were 19 points less likely to be right on a task built to sit outside it. The follow-up with 244 consultants found the three working styles above, and that self-automators developed neither AI skill nor domain skill.