AI vs Human Teams - Which Performs Better? P&G Study Results

If you're over 40 and worried about AI making your career irrelevant, this Harvard study will change how you think about your professional future.

Researchers tested 776 experienced professionals at Procter & Gamble (the global giant behind Tide, Pampers, Gillette, Oral-B, and dozens of household brands you use daily) on real product innovation challenges.

The results? AI isn't your replacement; it's your career accelerator.

The Bottom Line First

One person working with AI matched the performance of two-person teams working without AI. That's not a typo. Individual professionals using AI achieved the same quality results as traditional human teams, whilst working 16% faster and producing more comprehensive solutions.

For midlife professionals facing compressed timelines to financial independence, this represents a fundamental shift in how you can compete and deliver value.

What the Study Actually Tested

Harvard Business School, Wharton, and Warwick researchers partnered with P&G to run the largest real-world AI collaboration study to date. They split 776 experienced professionals into four groups:

• Individuals working alone (baseline)

• Two-person teams without AI

• Individuals with AI assistance

• Teams with AI assistance

These weren't university students doing made-up tasks. These were seasoned professionals tackling actual P&G product innovation challenges: the kind of high-stakes work that determines business success.

The Results That Matter to Your Career

Performance Breakthrough

Individuals using AI improved solution quality by 0.37 standard deviations over the baseline. Teams without AI? Only 0.24. AI-enabled individuals essentially matched team-level output whilst working alone.

Time Efficiency Gains

AI users completed tasks 16% faster than those working without AI. For professionals juggling full-time roles whilst building side ventures, this time saving is crucial for achieving financial independence goals.

Expertise Expansion

Here's where it gets interesting for career transitions: AI eliminated professional silos. Without AI, R&D professionals suggested technical solutions, Commercial professionals proposed market-focused ideas. With AI, both groups produced balanced solutions spanning technical and commercial domains.

This means you can now credibly contribute outside your traditional expertise area: essential for midlife career pivots.

Why This Matters for Your Financial Independence

Reduced Team Dependencies

If one person plus AI can match a two-person team's output, you can operate more independently. This is crucial for consulting, freelancing, or building your own ventures without hiring expensive team members.

Accelerated Learning Curve

The study showed that professionals unfamiliar with product development tasks could use AI to achieve performance levels comparable to experienced teams. This dramatically reduces the time needed to develop competency in new domains during career transitions.

Enhanced Value Proposition

You can now deliver team-level quality whilst maintaining individual-level costs and speed. This positioning advantage is particularly valuable for professionals over 40 competing against younger, lower-cost alternatives.

The Unexpected Social Benefits

Contrary to fears about AI creating isolated work experiences, participants using AI reported significantly more positive emotions and fewer negative feelings during tasks. AI interaction provided some of the motivational benefits traditionally associated with human collaboration.

For professionals considering independent work or consulting arrangements, this finding reduces concerns about professional isolation whilst building your path to financial independence.

What This Means for Your Next Career Move

Start Experimenting Now

The professionals in this study were relatively inexperienced with AI. As you develop more sophisticated AI interaction skills, the advantages will likely increase substantially.

Focus on Cross-Functional Capabilities

AI's ability to help you work across traditional boundaries means you can position yourself as a bridge between different expertise areas: a valuable skill for senior consulting roles.

Rethink Team Structures

Whether you're building a side business or positioning for senior roles, understand that AI changes the economics of collaboration. You can achieve more with smaller teams or as an individual contributor.

The Strategic Advantage for Seasoned Professionals

This research reveals a potential competitive advantage for experienced professionals willing to embrace AI collaboration. Your accumulated wisdom and professional judgement, combined with AI assistance, may prove more powerful than either young professionals with limited experience or AI tools alone.

The study found that AI-augmented teams were three times more likely to produce top-tier solutions. This suggests that whilst AI can substitute for basic collaborative functions, the combination of human experience plus AI assistance unlocks the highest levels of performance.

For midlife professionals, this isn't about competing with AI: it's about leveraging AI to amplify your existing expertise whilst rapidly developing new capabilities. The question isn't whether AI will reshape how we work, but whether you'll position yourself to benefit from that transformation.

The P&G study provides concrete evidence that this future is already here. Your move.

Want to accelerate your progress?

It’s packed with real-world examples, templates, and prompts to help you transform technology anxiety into a career advantage. Sign up now and take the next step toward building an AI-resilient, financially free future.

If you’re ready to move beyond AI anxiety and master practical, actionable AI strategies tailored for professionals over 40, grab my free guide:

Until next time,

Sources & Transparency Note

I strive to research each topic thoroughly and present information as accurately as possible. The sources listed above informed this article, though I recognize that our understanding of complex topics continues to evolve. If you notice any inaccuracies or have additional insights to share, please reach out in the comments below. Your feedback helps improve the quality of information for everyone in our community.

References & Further Reading

Dell'Acqua, Fabrizio and Ayoubi, Charles and Lifshitz-Assaf, Hila and Sadun, Raffaella and Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach and Han, Yi and Goldman, Jeff and Nair, Hari and Taub, Stew and Lakhani, Karim R., The Cybernetic Teammate: A Field Experiment on Generative AI Reshaping Teamwork and Expertise (March 28, 2025). Harvard Business School Strategy Unit Working Paper No. 25-043, Harvard Business School Technology & Operations Mgt. Unit Working Paper No. 25-043, Harvard Business Working Paper No. No. 25-043, The Wharton School Research Paper , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5188231 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5188231