Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have
transformed collaborative work processes, yet the impact on team performance
remains underexplored. Here we examine the role of generative AI in enhancing
or replacing traditional team dynamics using a randomized controlled experiment
with 435 participants across 122 teams. We show that teams augmented with
generative AI significantly outperformed those relying solely on human
collaboration across various performance measures. Interestingly, teams with
multiple AIs did not exhibit further gains, indicating diminishing returns with
increased AI integration. Our analysis suggests that centralized AI usage by a
few team members is more effective than distributed engagement. Additionally,
individual-AI pairs matched the performance of conventional teams, suggesting a
reduced need for traditional team structures in some contexts. However, despite
this capability, individual-AI pairs still fell short of the performance levels
achieved by AI-assisted teams. These findings underscore that while generative
AI can replace some traditional team functions, more comprehensively
integrating AI within team structures provides superior benefits, enhancing
overall effectiveness beyond individual efforts.

近期生成人工智能在协作工作流程中的应用取得了重大进展，对团队绩效的影响仍未被充分探索。本研究通过一项随机对照实验，在 122 支团队的 435 名参与者中研究了生成人工智能在增强或取代传统团队动态中的作用。研究结果表明，在各种绩效指标上，增加生成人工智能的团队显著优于仅依赖人类协作的团队。有趣的是，采用多个人工智能的团队并未表现出进一步的增益，暗示了集成人工智能的效果递减。我们的分析表明，由少数团队成员进行集中使用的人工智能比分布式参与更为有效。此外，个体 - 人工智能配对的表现与传统团队相当，说明在某些情境下，传统团队结构的需求减少了。然而，尽管有这种能力，个体 - 人工智能配对的表现仍不及人工智能辅助团队的水平。这些发现强调，生成人工智能可以取代一些传统团队功能，但更全面地将人工智能整合到团队结构中可以提供更优越的效益，提升整体效能而不仅仅依赖个人努力。