A randomized trial finds ChatGPT can help consultants complete data-science tasks without lasting mastery

Focus: Applied Generative AI for Knowledge Workers
Date: October 26, 2026
Topics: Temporary upskilling, Randomized evidence, Knowledge retention
Evidence: Publisher Authored
Availability: Available

A randomized assisted-versus-control comparison covers coding, statistics and prediction. Both completed task conditions feed a separate no-tool test, which finds no evidence of retained advantage. An experiment-wide brace states that expert performance was not matched overall.

Summary: A Nature Human Behaviour randomized trial assigned 487 management consultants to data-science work with or without ChatGPT. Assisted participants performed better across three tasks, yet did not match experts on every measure. Follow-up testing found no evidence that the temporary capability translated into retained technical knowledge after the tool was removed.

Why it matters: You will learn to separate assisted performance from durable skill: measure task quality during use, retest without the tool, compare results with expert baselines and decide which workflows need training, review or preserved human capability before deployment.

Source: Temporary upskilling through ChatGPT

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