Abstract: Artificial intelligence has entered the workplace not as a uniform productivity tool but as a "jagged frontier"—improving performance dramatically on some knowledge tasks while degrading outcomes on others. Drawing on field experimental evidence from 758 consultants at Boston Consulting Group and emerging organizational implementations across industries, this article examines how AI transforms knowledge work performance. The research reveals that AI assistance enabled workers to complete 12.2% more tasks 25.1% faster with higher quality—but only for tasks within AI's capability frontier. For complex tasks beyond that frontier, AI users were 19% less likely to produce correct solutions, suggesting overreliance risks. This article synthesizes experimental findings with organizational responses, offering evidence-based guidance for leaders navigating AI integration. Organizations succeeding with AI are those implementing structured evaluation frameworks, building human judgment capabilities alongside AI tools, and redesigning workflows to leverage AI's uneven strengths while protecting against its contextual weaknesses. The jagged frontier metaphor provides a practical lens for understanding where AI creates value and where human expertise remains irreplaceable in knowledge-intensive work.
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