The AI Productivity Gap I’m Seeing Right Now

I’ve been traveling and speaking over the last few weeks. Workshops and keynotes, groups of ten to two hundred. And I noticed something I want to talk about with you today, because you might be feeling it too.

When it comes to a tool like ChatGPT or Claude or AI in general, a lot of people are stuck in first gear.

When I ask folks if they’re comfortable using a tool, if they use it daily, I’m seeing more and more hands go up. But when I dig a little deeper, I find that almost all of those hands are using it in a very sparing way. They’re reshaping an email. They’re spell checking a document. They’re using it in some small way that they’ve decided is the limit of the tool.

That’s what I mean by first gear.

I did a presentation this week where I used some data. This was for nonprofits, but it applies across the board. The other reports I was looking at said the same thing.

About four to five hundred organizations were polled. Ninety-two percent said yes, AI is being used in their organization. Now that doesn’t mean it’s widespread, or that there’s a strategy, or a policy. It just means somebody in the organization was using it. Pretty loose. But ninety-two percent.

Here’s the part that got me. Only seven percent said they were seeing any meaningful difference in their work from using the tool.

Ninety-two percent using it. Seven percent benefiting from it.

That’s the productivity gap right now, the space between using it and benefiting from it. And I’m seeing it with my own eyes in almost every room I talk to.

So if you find yourself comfortable spinning in first gear, you’re not alone. This is very common. It’s documented, and I’m watching it happen in real time.

So here’s the first thing I’d tell you if you can relate to this, if you’re using a tool but not finding much benefit from it.

I want to share what I call my amazing intern mentality. Talk to it. Give it feedback and context the way you would if a person were sitting in front of you.

Imagine an intern came to your work and sat down next to your desk, for your use only. And this intern was highly capable, available, and adaptable. What would you have them do to bring value to your day?

Think of that one thing. And it’s got to be more than spell checking a document or making sure an email has the right tone. Those aren’t value-shifting exercises. Those aren’t meaningful improvements to your work.

What I’m talking about is having a problem-solving partner to solve for the busy middle.

If you haven’t heard me talk about the busy middle before, here’s the idea.

Almost every project falls into three phases. The first is thinking about it. The ideation, the outline, figuring out what you’re doing and why. The second is the work itself, the mental and physical effort of actually making the thing. That’s the busy middle. The third is the polish, where you bring your expertise and finish the piece.

Most of us spend the majority of our time in that second phase. We exhaust ourselves there. Our time, our energy. And that’s where we end up on the productivity treadmill.

I’m guilty of this too. I’ve hired people for their expertise and their experience, but I pay them on a daily basis to be mostly busy. Think about that. I’m hiring them for phase three, the polish and the perspective. But I’m paying them for phase two, all the time it takes to turn a blank page into something.

And that exhaustion is real. It’s so real that we often run out of time, or energy, or care before we ever get to phase three. So we settle. Good enough. We used to call it perfect enough at the agency.

So how much good enough are you putting out? And how much more could you do if you could shrink that busy middle?

So let me give you something simple to try.

If you’re stuck, if you’re wondering how this could possibly work for your role, in your job, at your company, here’s where you start. Talk to it. Whatever tool you use, literally say this:

“I don’t know anything about what you’re capable of. I’ve heard good things, but I don’t know how you can help me. So let me tell you what I do, where I do it, what my job is, and some of the things that fill my day. And I want you to tell me how you think you could help.”

That’s it. That’s how you start turning that capable, available, adaptable intern into something that gives you ideas.

What you’ll get back is a list, probably seven to ten things. Each one with a headline, a sentence, maybe a couple of bullets. It’s not a lot. But if anything on that list looks interesting, just say, “Tell me more about number four.” And you’ll get a wealth of detail. That’s where the ideas start. That’s where you say, “I didn’t know I could do that.”

And the conversation keeps going just like that. You ask questions. You give feedback. You’re the boss. These are your rules and your questions. The only way to understand how it can help is to ask.

A lot of people look at me funny when I say you have to have a two-way conversation. They say, “It’s a computer. You don’t do that.” But in every workshop I do, I can find someone who tells me they’re already engaging in a meaningful way. And when I show them how I actually talk and go back and forth with it, they say, “I never thought of that.”

So even the people who think they’re interacting are leaving a lot on the table.

It changed my daily work. It changed my professional life. And not because I’m smarter, or because I have more resources. It’s only because I put in the time to be curious and explore. I literally said, “Do you think you can help me with this?” and “If I needed to do this, how could you help?”

That’s how you move from the group that’s just using it to the group that’s getting something meaningful out of it.

If you feel like you’re not getting much from these tools, if you’re wondering where the value is, if you’re wondering whether you’re falling behind, you’re not. But there is a real opportunity here for you.

Just have the conversation.

As always, the most important thing in getting value out of any tool is your own curiosity. So until we talk again, stay curious.