The Hidden Value of Human Followers

Keisuke Hattori

EconStor Preprints from ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics

Abstract: Replacing a human follower with AI that supplies more input can reduce team output. With complementary effort, a leader works harder because a human follower observes this effort and responds with greater effort. AI that matches the follower's contribution removes this reason to work hard, so the leader works less and team output falls. In larger teams, the remaining human followers also work less. Profit-maximizing firms may nevertheless adopt AI that contributes more while the team produces less. Falling AI costs can trigger an output drop at adoption, followed by recovery. Replacing followers can mean discouraging leaders.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Team production; Leadership; Strategic complementarity; Automation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 J23 M54 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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