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How AI impacts individuals and teams across Procter and Gamble

Conor Grennan and Douglas Flora

Mar 27, 2025, 15:17

How AI impacts individuals and teams across Procter and Gamble

Conor Grennan, Chief AI Architect at NYU Stern School of Business, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Friends, this is the MOST IMPORTANT study on AI in 2025. The brilliant Ethan Mollick and team studied how AI impacts individuals and teams across Procter and Gamble – the results are stunning. Here’s what you need to know:

The “Cybernetic Teammate” study was conducted in Summer 2024 by a research from Harvard and Wharton, in partnership with Procter & Gamble.

WHO WAS TESTED:

The study involved 776 P-G professionals and replicated P-G’s product development process across four business units.

The experiment featured four distinct conditions:

– Individuals working alone without AI
– Individuals working alone with AI
– Teams of two specialists (one commercial expert, one technical R&D expert) working without AI
– Teams of two specialists working with AI

Key findings

Individual Performance: AI improved individual performance by 37%

Team Performance: AI improved team performance by 39%

Breakthrough Solutions: Teams using AI were 3x more likely to produce solutions in top 10% of quality

Effeciency Gains

Individuals using AI completed tasks 16.4% faster than those without

Output Quality

Despite working faster, AI-enabled groups produced substantially longer and more detailed solutions

Expertise and collaboration effects

Breaking Down Silos!!

Without AI: Clear professional silos existed — R&D specialists created technical solutions while Commercial specialists developed market-focused ideas

With AI: Distinctions virtually disappeared — both types of specialists produced balanced solutions integrating technical and commercial perspectives

Experience Leveling: Less experienced employees using AI performed at levels comparable to teams with experienced members

Emotional Experience

Positive Emotions: AI users reported significantly higher levels of excitement, energy, and enthusiasm

Negative Emotions: AI users experienced less anxiety and frustration during work

Individual Experience: People working alone with AI reported emotional experiences comparable to or better than those in human teams

Team Dynamics

Solution Types: Teams without AI showed a bimodal distribution (either technically or commercially oriented solutions)

Balanced Input: AI appeared to reduce dominance effects, allowing more equal contribution from team members

Consistency: Teams with AI showed more uniform, high-quality outputs compared to the variable results of standard teams

We’ll be talking about this study for a while.

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Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services at St. Elizabeth Healthcare and ACCC President-Elect, shared this post, adding:

“For those still dragging your feet, how about some strong data suggesting it may be time to reevaluate some of your thoughts on AI for your hospital systems, practices, or businesses? Thanks for sharing Conor Grennan and kudos to Ethan Mollick and team on pulling this together.”