How can you take advantage of AI to meaningfully improve your productivity?

Artificial Intelligence might be just the boost we need to jumpstart our personal and collective productivity.

Over the past several years, so-called productivity apps have become a normal part of work life for  millions of American workers. Designed to keep us on task and collaborating better at a distance, these apps are especially important tools for large, hybrid, or virtual teams. However, as we add new apps to our phones and computers to improve our productivity at work, what are we actually talking about? What is our actual goal? 

Exactly what is productivity? 

Today we are going to take a brief look at how we measure productivity, why it is important, and what productivity apps can do to improve it in the workplace. Finally, we will take a quick look at a few of the innovative apps that you might be able to use to get more done. 

First things first. 

What is productivity?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides us with a practical, albeit a bit academic, answer to our question. 

“Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services.” 

Within that definition, we see that productivity relies on inputs, of which there are two basic types: capital and labor. Capital productivity indicates how well a physical factor performs: money, tools, technology, plots of land, etc. On the other hand, labor productivity examines the output generated by a given individual (or group of individuals) over a period of time. 

Since we are more interested in how individuals and teams perform, we will focus on labor productivity in this article. To that end, McKinsey & Company provides us with a concise alternative definition. 

“Productivity measures the amount of value created for each hour that is worked in a society.” 

Why has productivity slowed down in the United States over the past decade?

Since the tech boom of the 1990s, general productivity growth in advanced economies, including the United States, has been slowing down. This does not mean that our society is becoming less productive. It means that we are struggling to find new ways to become even more productive than we have been—a real life parallel to the law of diminishing returns. 

We can only invent a technology one time. Once a technology is invented, refined, and democratized, other productivity gains beyond that new baseline will only be incremental compared to the “big jumps.” 

Take the telephone as an example. 

While the invention of the telephone dramatically improved productivity, once the average worker was able to reliably and consistently communicate at great distances, all other gains rooted in remote communication have resulted in relatively less growth in output. Even though cell phones and internet-based communication have dramatically improved our ability to connect around the globe, the resulting impact on efficiency is still much less than what was provoked by the rise of the telephone. 

To think of it in simpler terms, the difference between a Zoom call and a phone call is much less than the difference between a telephone call and a multi-day journey via train, horse, and ship. The telephone (and telegraph before it) was truly revolutionary, facilitating enormous gains in efficiency. 

Civilization’s last major jump forward was facilitated by the infiltration of semiconductors into everyday lives and workplaces. The semiconductor and internet boom of the 1990s facilitated the rise of personal computers, advanced robotics, cell phones, and other related technologies. Since that time, although the average worker’s productivity has continued to grow (thanks to the tools that were spawned and evolved from the tech boom), the rate has been measurably slower. Much slower. 

Productivity growth over time: United States 1871-2016 

4. ChatGPT: Motor of the AI revolution

The release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November of 2022 released a wave of interest and investment in AI software. The efficiency, ease, and conversational nature of this large language model (GPT-4) is making its way into a slew of new and coming features for many major tech players. Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI and will steadily infuse its products with ChatGPT technology over the coming months and years. Expect to see AI-powered versions of Outlook, Excel, and Word in the near future that will be capable of writing, replying, and analyzing data with simple, natural language prompts thanks to this tech.



Screenshot from ChatGPT. 

Beyond these AI tools, dozens more exist. Missive helps you organize and respond to emails. Jasper will write high quality content. Beautiful.ai will compose, organize, and animate purposeful and attractive slide decks for your next presentation. 

How to make the jump.

Artificial Intelligence is here to stay—and it will be shaking things up. After germinating in universities, and tech companies for many years, it has now sprouted and is growing rapidly in workplaces across the country. Its presence will raise alarm for some and unreasonable expectations for many others. 

However, those who realize the actual, concrete opportunities presented by AI can leverage its power to exponentially increase their productivity. Though far from a human brain, AI is now reaching the point that it can offload some of your most dreaded and draining tasks, allowing you to focus on your strengths and become more productive than ever.