This is the second major field experiment led by the BCG Henderson Institute designed to help business leaders understand how humans and GenAI should collaborate in the workplace. Our previous study assessed the value created—and destroyed—by GenAI when used by workers for tasks they had the capabilities to complete on their own. Our latest experiment tests how workers can use GenAI to complete tasks that are beyond their current capabilities.

A new type of knowledge worker is entering the global talent pool. This employee, augmented with generative AI, can write code faster, create personalized marketing content with a single prompt, and summarize hundreds of documents in seconds.

These are impressive productivity gains. But as the nature of many jobs and the skills required to do them evolve, workers will need to expand their current capabilities. Can GenAI be a solution there as well?

Based on the results of a new experiment conducted by the BCG Henderson Institute and scholars from Boston University and OpenAI’s Economic Impacts research team, the answer is an unequivocal yes. We’ve now found that it’s possible for employees who didn’t have the full know-how to perform a particular task yesterday to use GenAI to complete the same task today.

With that in mind, leaders should embrace GenAI not only as a tool for increasing productivity, but as a technology that equips the workforce to meet the changing job demands of today, tomorrow, and beyond. They should consider generative AI an exoskeleton: a tool that empowers workers to perform better, and do more, than either the human or GenAI can on their own.

Of course, there are important caveats—for example, employees may not have the requisite knowledge to check their work, and therefore may not know when the tool has gotten it wrong. Or they may become less attentive in situations where they should be more discriminating.

But leaders who effectively manage the risks can reap significant rewards. The ability to rapidly take on new types of work with GenAI—particularly tasks that traditionally require niche skills that are harder to find, such as data science—can be a game-changer for individuals and companies alike.