In the near future, quantity will have a quality of its own

Do you think being a high-performer will save you from the AI doomsday? You are up to a hell of a disappointment there.

I was chatting a few days ago with Andreas Mitschke who pointed me towards a very interesting paper published by Harvard Business School, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Wharton School (please see the abstract for full credit to the researchers).

The paper confirms something I intuitively experienced, which can be condensed into the following: while augmenting your skills with A.I. will make you perform better, the largest delta will be experienced by mediocre employees.

Put differently, there is a cap to how well or fast people can accomplish a task, so if you are already a top performer, the improvement will be marginal, whereas if you are plainly bad at something, AI will make you shine.

This has a very deep implication in the workplace: Quantity will have a quality of its own. if talent variance becomes marginal, the only way to outperform a competing business will be through sheer numbers.

This may change where and what skills become more in demand, and where these will be hired: white collar may become the XXI Century blue collar.

Full research here.