New Delhi, April 13 -- Technological revolutions have a familiar rhythm. First comes excitement, then investment, and then an awkward phase of reality refusing to cooperate with the narrative. Artificial intelligence (AI) has now entered that third phase.

Over the past year, large technology firms have cut thousands of jobs while increasing investment in AI. These have been framed at least partly as a pivot to an AI-driven future. The storyline is neat: machines will do more, humans will do less and productivity will rise accordingly. Markets seem to favour the narrative. The problem is that the technology has not quite caught up with it.

Across companies, AI is improving productivity, but not in the clean substitutional way headlines s...