A new field experiment by the National Bank of Slovakia finds that generative AI can more than double the productivity of skilled professionals working on specialized tasks.
Researchers randomly assigned access to OpenAI’s GPT-4o to central bank employees and measured their performance across both generalist and specialist assignments.
The results reveal striking differences in how AI reshapes output depending on skill and task type. While all participants improved when using AI, the biggest gains were concentrated among top performers handling complex, domain-specific work.
“Generative AI increased performance in specialized tasks by between 108 and 117%, slightly more than twice the impact on generalist tasks.”
That effect was far stronger than the average improvement recorded for generalist work.
“Access to generative AI doubled performance in our specialized, domain-specific tasks, compared to 50% improvements for the generalist tasks.”
The findings suggest that generative AI not only accelerates routine output but also amplifies the efficiency of experts who can integrate the technology into analytical and creative workflows. The report notes that “high-skilled workers with domain expertise and prior generative AI exposure were able to effectively integrate generative AI into their work practices on the specialist tasks.”
Researchers also observed broad benefits across the workforce.
“94% of participants scored higher when they had access to generative AI versus when they did not.”
The study emphasizes that these gains occurred without sacrificing efficiency. Participants completed tasks roughly 21% faster on average when using AI tools, highlighting the dual benefit of higher quality and shorter turnaround times.
While the study suggests how generative AI could be used to augment human labor, a group of Stanford researchers sounded the alarm about the negative impact of the tech on the workforce. In August, a study authored by Erik Brynjolfsson, Prasanna Chandar, and Daniel Chen showed that the job market has not been kind to young workers, especially those exposed to generative AI fields.
“Since the widespread adoption of generative AI, early-career workers (ages 22–25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 13% relative decline in employment even after controlling for firm-level shocks.”
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