Productivity

Posts filed under Productivity.

Topic

  • The downturn playbook for AI-native firms: cut the fat, not the capability

    If a downturn hits, the tempting move is to turn AI into a cost-cutting program. Across 4,700 companies and three recessions, firms that ran that play had the worst odds of leading afterward. The winning move: cut the good-times fat, protect service quality, and put AI-freed hours into retention.

  • Constraint Whack-a-Mole: What AI Adoption Actually Feels Like

    Your firm was built for a narrow band of output per person, and AI breaks the ceiling. Google's DORA data shows individuals getting faster while delivery gets slower. The fix is a constraint hunt that never ends.

  • Age Predicts Who Adopts AI. Skill Predicts Who Benefits.

    AI lifts the least experienced workers most, while AI expertise peaks mid-career. That inversion breaks the service-firm pyramid. The fix I keep seeing work: sort work by risk, not seniority, and change what juniors and seniors are for.

  • The Extra Time AI Buys You Is Already Gone

    Ask about a task and AI looks transformative: 55% faster coding, 40% less time writing. Ask about the firm and three years of realized productivity gain comes to 0.29%. Freed time doesn't wait to be claimed. It gets absorbed by the tasks around it.

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