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The Quarterly Journal of Economics

Generative AI at Work

2025-02-04760 citationsDOI 10.1093/qje/qjae044

Erik Brynjolfsson · Danielle Li · Lindsey Raymond

Research summary

A staggered rollout to 5,172 customer-support agents increased issues resolved per hour by 15% on average. Less experienced workers gained most, while the most experienced saw smaller gains and slight quality declines.

Evidence strengths

  • 5,172 workers
  • Real-world deployment data
  • Measures productivity, quality, learning, and worker experience

Limitations

  • Single firm and occupation
  • Staggered rollout is less controlled than a randomized experiment

Topics

  • Human-AI Interaction
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Learning
  • Social Intelligence

Connected claims

  • Supports

    Human-AI collaboration does not reliably outperform the better standalone human or AI; results depend strongly on the task and interaction design.

    AI assistance improved productivity in a specific customer-support setting, with heterogeneous effects by worker experience.

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