Technology alone is never enough for true productivity

Technology continues to change how we work, and gen AI is the latest, greatest disruptor. But real productivity happens only when companies holistically rethink how they do business.


As generative AI (gen AI) grips the attention of business, corporate leadership can support their companies’ growth most by prioritizing the needs of their workers while simultaneously standardizing the use of cutting-edge tech. In this episode of the At the Edge podcast, economist and Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson speaks with McKinsey’s Lareina Yee about how gen AI differs from previous technological innovations, why it will likely augment more jobs than it replaces, and why keeping humans in the loop is essential.

An edited transcript of the discussion follows. For more conversations on cutting-edge technology, follow the series on your preferred podcast platform.

Why gen AI is spreading faster than previous technologies

Lareina Yee: Erik, let’s start with your research, which over the last three decades has looked at how digital technology and automation drive productivity growth. Right now, we’re excited about generative AI. What’s different about generative AI, and what might also be similar?

Erik Brynjolfsson: That’s a great question. Let me start with what’s similar, because going back over the decades we see some recurring patterns. When I first started working on this, economist Bob Solow asked me to look at the productivity paradox of some amazing technologies in the ’80s, since computers weren’t translating into real productivity gains.

One of the things we learned was that awesome technology alone is not enough. What you really need is to update your business processes, reskill your workforce, and sometimes even change your business models and organization in a big way. This can lead to what we call a productivity J-curve, where initially, as you’re doing all those changes, you don’t see productivity gains, and may even experience a productivity loss. Over time, the second part of the J-curve kicks in, and you get these bigger benefits.

I believe that we’re likely to see a similar bit of a lag with generative AI, because it does ultimately require some rethinking of how businesses are run. But what’s different with generative AI is that the lag is shorter; generative AI is happening a lot faster. And that’s partly because generative AI is, frankly, one of the biggest, most effective technologies for changing the way work is done that’s ever been invented. Also, it’s just easier to implement than many earlier technologies, and a lot of it is something regular workers can get going on in a few hours or less

The other difference is that we have a platform where we can distribute and implement generative AI—one that’s been built out over the past couple of decades during those earlier technology revolutions like the internet, cloud, and infrastructure. This means that technologies like ChatGPT could go from zero to 100 million users in just 60 days, something we’ve never seen before.

Website: worldtopscientists.com

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