---
title: "A new study reflects exactly what I'm seeing"
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/a-new-study-reflects-exactly-what-im-seeing
date: 2026-06-17
author: Sam Page
type: Post or article
categories: [Emerging tech and AI]
reading_time: 1 min
summary: "A new study reflects exactly what I'm seeing: AI massively boosts productivity for low-level tasks (290%), but much less for high-level tasks (30%)."
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7472964196239044608
---

# A new study reflects exactly what I'm seeing

A new study reflects exactly what I'm seeing: AI massively boosts productivity for low-level tasks (290%), but much less for high-level tasks (30%).

![](https://sam-page.com/img/thinking/a-new-study-reflects-exactly-what-im-seeing-li1.webp)

To get the most value from AI, focus on the low-hanging fruit which has a limited context. Then as the task becomes more complex use AI as an aid, but you should expect to do most of the work yourself.

In coding, which is what the study was based on, that translates to AI being most effective when it's helping you on a particular piece of code or file, but when it comes to crafting the full product for release, the returns are limited.

When it comes to writing, it can definitely help with research and structure of an article really effectively, but it can't create a full book in a compelling way that is unique and matches your tone of voice.

The study by MIT’s Mert Demirer and co-authors can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ei9cgdPq

Chart below from FT article summarising the findings: https://lnkd.in/euG-D29y