Sort with evidence
Place every activity in AI Replaces, AI Augments or Human Leads, and mark each AI placement tried here or not yet; untried placements become small tests. AI’s ability is uneven across tasks that look alike.
Innovation NavigatorStrategic Game
Human Advantage in an AI World
from AI will replace it all, or none of it→to a map we draw, test and redraw
The Goal
Map the team’s actual work into what AI replaces, what it augments and what stays human-led, with the evidence, the check and the principle behind each line.
Ideal For
Teams adopting AI tools or redesigning roles around them, leadership offsites on AI and the workforce, post-rollout resets, and any team where AI use has spread without anyone deciding what stays human.
The Shift
From AI will replace it all, or none of it to a map we draw, test and redraw.
The Science
AI’s ability is uneven: in a field experiment, consultants using AI did better on tasks within its reach and worse on a task just outside it. AI assistance tends to raise productivity on writing and support work, most for less-experienced people. People who rely on automated output tend to miss its errors, and skills that aren’t practised tend to decay, so what stays human, and how AI’s work is checked, are decisions to make on purpose.
Human Advantage, step by step
- Say the safety lineThe sponsor’s promise, out loud: we sort activities, not jobs, and no headcount decision comes out of this room.
- Take inventoryList the team’s real activities, not roles: what actually fills the week.
- Sort with evidencePlace each activity in AI Replaces, AI Augments or Human Leads, and mark each AI placement tried here or not yet. Can’t agree? It goes in AI Augments.
- Name the checksFor every activity AI touches, write who looks at its output and how.
- Protect the human leadOne sentence on why each Human Leads activity stays human, and a practice plan for the skills that would fade.
- Commit“By [date], [owner] will move [activity] to [zone], checked by [check],” one activity reclaimed, one untried placement tested, and the quarterly redraw booked.
The techniques, and why they work
Name the check
For every activity AI touches, say who looks at its output and how. People who rely on automated output tend to miss its errors.
Protect the human lead
Write one sentence on why each Human Leads activity stays human, keep practising the skills that would fade, delegate one and reclaim one, and redraw the map each quarter. Skills that aren’t practised tend to decay.
Selected research
- Dell’Acqua, F., McFowland, E., III, Mollick, E., Lifshitz, H., Kellogg, K. C., Rajendran, S., Krayer, L., Candelon, F., & Lakhani, K. R. (2026). Navigating the jagged technological frontier: Field experimental evidence of the effects of artificial intelligence on knowledge worker productivity and quality. Organization Science, 37(2), 403–423.
- Brynjolfsson, E., Li, D., & Raymond, L. (2025). Generative AI at work. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 140(2), 889–942.
- Noy, S., & Zhang, W. (2023). Experimental evidence on the productivity effects of generative artificial intelligence. Science, 381(6654), 187–192.
- Parasuraman, R., & Manzey, D. H. (2010). Complacency and bias in human use of automation: An attentional integration. Human Factors, 52(3), 381–410.
- Arthur, W., Jr., Bennett, W., Jr., Stanush, P. L., & McNelly, T. L. (1998). Factors that influence skill decay and retention: A quantitative review and analysis. Human Performance, 11(1), 57–101.
From the research
The thinking behind this lab, published in full: