Forbes Argues Productivity Is The Wrong Question. Capability Is The Right One. The Distinction Is Not Subtle.
A Forbes Council piece draws a line between doing existing work faster and doing work that was previously impossible. Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index provides the supporting evidence: 66% of surveyed AI users report spending more time on higher-value work, while 58% say they are producing work they could not have produced one year earlier. The author argues boards should evaluate AI through two distinct lenses rather than settling for vague efficiency claims.
This illustrates the concept of capability expansion versus process optimization. The mental model here is the productivity-capability distinction: productivity improves the slope of an existing curve, while capability shifts you to an entirely new curve. The mechanism is threshold crossing. Below a certain capability threshold, a task is simply not attempted. Above it, the task becomes routine. Most organizations measure the slope improvement and miss the curve shift entirely. That is a category error in evaluation.
The author is a Forbes Technology Council contributor writing for an enterprise leadership audience. Microsoft provides the underlying data through its 2026 Work Trend Index survey of AI users.
- Open any consumer AI assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude and write down one task you do weekly that feels repetitive but necessary. Ask the AI to complete it and note the time saved. This is your productivity baseline.
- Now ask yourself what task you have avoided attempting in the past year because it seemed too complex, too time-consuming, or required skills you lack. Describe that task to the AI in detail and ask for a first draft or framework. This is your capability test.
- Compare the two results. If the productivity task merely got faster but the capability task produced something genuinely new to you, you have just demonstrated the distinction the article describes. The second result is the one that matters.