field experiment

Does AI Assistance Enhance or Erode Expertise? Evidence from a Three-Month Field Experiment in Patent Drafting

Authors

David Autor, Tanya Rodchenko, Josh Martin, Zanna Iscenko, Scott Strand, David Pearl, Melissa Ferere

Venue

MIT Shaping the Future of Work working paper (not peer-reviewed)

Published

2026-09-01

Working paper (September 2026) from the MIT Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work. In a pre-registered randomized trial with 133 practicing patent lawyers at 11 U.S. law firms, AI drafting help raised work quality, with larger gains for junior lawyers; on a later task done without AI, the advantage appeared only among senior lawyers. Not peer-reviewed.