The promise of the modern workplace has long been built on the synergy of "top talent." When generative AI entered the fold, the assumption was that these star performers would simply become supercharged. However, recent observations from the academic and corporate worlds suggest a more fractured reality: AI may be acting as a solvent, dissolving the bonds that hold teams together. Scott Dyreng, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, noted a startling shift in his MBA classes. Historically, only about 5% of his students chose to "break up" their teams to work solo on final projects. After the introduction of AI, that number surged to over 50%.
The issue lies in the erosion of what might be called "productive friction." Collaborative work requires negotiation, the reconciliation of disparate viewpoints, and the slow process of reaching a consensus. When an individual can use an AI agent to bypass these social hurdles, the incentive to collaborate vanishes. The result is a collection of high-performing soloists rather than a high-performing team. Dyreng found that AI disrupted the core skills of teamwork—specifically the ability to negotiate and find common ground—leading students to opt for the path of least resistance: working alone.
To counter this atomization, leaders are beginning to treat AI as a facilitator of human interaction rather than a replacement for it. Instead of using tools to generate the final output, savvy organizations are deploying AI to handle the administrative scaffolding of collaboration—analyzing meeting dynamics, summarizing complex discussions, and tracking participation. At companies like Jotform, the focus remains on small, cross-functional pods where roles shift with every project. By maintaining a balance of diverse expertise, these teams ensure that the human element remains the primary engine of innovation. The challenge for the next decade of management will not be whether to adopt AI, but how to prevent it from automating away the very cooperation that defines a company.
With reporting from Fast Company.
Source · Fast Company
