Definition
The uneven and invisible line between tasks AI does well and tasks it does badly, which users cannot reliably locate from the inside.
What is at stake
It is the reason a pilot that works is not evidence the next task will, and it is the objection the first sceptic in the room reaches for.
Where the word came from
- The jagged frontierthe jagged frontier study, 2023
- What explains the jaggednessartificial general cleverness, Terence Tao, 2025, which the paper establishes without accounting for
How episcope came to it
The jagged frontier study.
Papers behind it
Dell'Acqua, F., McFowland III, E., Mollick, E., Lifshitz-Assaf, H., Kellogg, K., Rajendran, S., Krayer, L., Candelon, F., & Lakhani, K. R. (2026). Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality. Organization Science, 37(2).
Peer reviewedFirst circulated as Harvard Business School working paper 24-013, in 2023.
Read next
Centaur and CyborgDividing tasks against interleaving them.The irony of automationAutomate the routine, lose the practice, keep the emergency.The efficiency-gain illusionOverestimating what AI saved you, specifically for AI.
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