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NBER Working Papers · September 7, 2026

Does AI Assistance Enhance or Erode Expertise? Evidence from a Three-Month Field Experiment in Patent Drafting -- by David Autor, Tanya Rodchenko, Josh Martin, Zanna Iscenko, Scott Strand, David Pearl, Melissa Ferere

Intellectual Property LawEconomicsHuman Resources
THE AI ANGLE
Boosting immediate drafting performance while yielding unequal durable skill retention

A three-month randomized controlled trial evaluating 133 patent lawyers found that using a custom AI drafting assistant improved patent drafting quality, with the largest immediate gains observed among junior attorneys. However, when tested on unassisted redlining tasks after three months, long-term performance gains were concentrated entirely among senior lawyers, while junior lawyers experienced no average gain and a bifurcation into more poor and good scores. For faculty in economics, human resources, and intellectual property, this demonstrates that foundational human expertise may be essential to translate AI-assisted productivity into lasting professional skill.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
Instructors can examine the organizational and training tension of adopting AI tools that boost junior worker productivity in the short term while potentially undermining the development of durable, unassisted professional judgment.

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