What if you could double the capability of your workforce without increasing headcount?
That’s no longer a provocative question — it’s now a reality backed by rigorous evidence. A major new study, published on 21 March 2025 by Professor Ethan Mollick and colleagues, has reshaped the way AI’s role in the workplace should be understood at board level.
The study, Using AI at Work: The Impact of AI Tool Use on Individual and Team Performance, tested 776 Procter & Gamble professionals solving real business challenges under time pressure. The participants were split into four groups — solo workers with and without AI, and teams of two with and without AI. What they discovered has boardroom-level implications for workforce planning, capability strategy, and governance oversight.
Here’s what directors and non-executive directors (NEDs) need to take seriously.
1. AI Can Replicate — or Outperform — Traditional Team Structures
The study found that individuals using AI performed as well as traditional two-person teams without AI. Even more striking, teams with access to AI outperformed both solo and team-based groups that didn’t use AI.
This fundamentally challenges how we define team productivity. It suggests that an AI-enabled individual is now capable of team-level output — with implications for everything from FTE planning to budget allocation and performance metrics.
From a governance perspective, this is not about incremental efficiency. It points to a structural capability shift. Boards should expect — and demand — reporting on how AI augmentation is affecting functional performance, and whether workforce models are being adjusted accordingly.
Recommendation: Add “AI-augmented productivity” to regular board reviews of functional performance. Ask for evidence of comparative benchmarks — with and without AI workflows.
2. Structured Workflows — Not AI Alone — Were the Real Differentiator
Critically, participants weren’t simply told to “go use GPT-4.” They were provided with structured prompts — expert-designed AI workflows tailored to the task at hand. These weren’t generic. They mirrored the mental models and decision-making processes of experienced practitioners.
In other words, the performance uplift didn’t come from AI access alone. It came from how that AI was deployed. The real unlock was giving non-experts access to expertise through carefully designed AI input structures.
This means boards need to shift the conversation from “are we using AI?” to “who is designing and governing the workflows?” This is where IP, quality control, and risk management all converge.
Recommendation: Ensure accountability for AI workflow development and governance sits within a defined function — not scattered across business units. This is not just a tech issue; it’s an operational risk and quality assurance question.
3. Expertise is Becoming Modular — and Distributed
Perhaps the most disruptive insight: non-experts using AI workflows performed on par with experts.
This suggests that capability is no longer confined to roles or years of experience — it can be distributed through structured systems. That has significant implications for how boards assess succession plans, leadership pipelines, and talent strategies.
For example, if junior staff can produce expert-quality work through guided AI systems, what becomes of traditional progression models? And where does your competitive edge come from if expertise is no longer scarce?
Recommendation: Ask your executive team how AI is being used to flatten capability hierarchies. Are workflows being designed to lift underutilised talent? Is the business still over-indexing on experience when capability can now be “unlocked” on demand?
4. AI Deployment Affected Engagement — Not Just Output
The study didn’t just report better performance — it found something unexpected: participants using AI felt more positive, enthusiastic, and confident about their work.
This matters. Too many board conversations still position AI as a source of disruption or threat. But when deployed thoughtfully, with training and clear purpose, AI may actually drive improved engagement and wellbeing — exactly the kind of metrics boards are under pressure to monitor.
This means AI should be viewed as a strategic enabler of both productivity and culture — not simply a cost reducer or automation tool.
Recommendation: Ask management to include sentiment analysis and engagement feedback in AI rollout reporting. The true ROI may include culture uplift — not just output.
5. This Is Not an Emerging Trend — It’s a Present Tipping Point
What distinguishes this study is that it didn’t come from a tech vendor or futurist think tank. It was a live deployment in a high-performing, global organisation, with validated business challenges and impartial evaluation.
In short: this is not theoretical. It’s current state.
Boards that treat AI as a future consideration risk governing for a world that no longer exists. The shift has already happened — what matters now is how quickly organisations adapt, and how effectively boards provide oversight in the transition.
Recommendation: Reframe AI as a standing item in capability and risk discussions. If AI is now a key contributor to workforce output, then it deserves consistent scrutiny, not occasional updates.
Closing Thoughts
The narrative around AI in boardrooms has often been dominated by disruption, job loss, or compliance risk. This study flips that. It shows AI, when deployed with care and structure, can unlock talent, lift performance, and improve the employee experience — all while reducing reliance on specialist skills.
What’s emerging is not just a new tool — but a new model for value creation.
Boards that recognise this — and shift governance, oversight, and capability planning accordingly — will not only manage risk more effectively. They’ll unlock real, measurable strategic advantage.
📄 Study Reference Mollick, E., Choi, E. Y. J., & Raju, N. (2025). Using AI at Work: The Impact of AI Tool Use on Individual and Team Performance. SSRN, published 21 March 2025.🔗 Read the full study
Ready to explore how AI can be embedded into your executive and functional teams — with structure, safety, and measurable results?
At Leadership Academy, we help boards and leadership teams unlock performance by integrating expert-designed AI workflows into real work.
👉 Book a confidential strategy call to explore what AI capability could look like inside your organisation. Let’s turn AI from a concept into competitive advantage.
Alexie