Jargon:Force multiplier
1 min read
Say this at the party
“Anything that lets a person or team get far more done than their size suggests. AI is the big one now: it amplifies what you do, it doesn't replace you.”
In plain English
The idea comes from the military. A force multiplier is anything that lets a small force do what would normally take a much bigger one, like GPS, better training or good intelligence.
In business it means the same thing: a tool or habit that multiplies what you already do. Spreadsheets were a force multiplier for accountants. AI is the one everyone is talking about now.
The key word is multiplier. It makes your effort count for more, but anything times zero is still zero. You still need to know what you're aiming at.
Where it came from
Military strategists use the term for anything that makes a force more effective without making it bigger, from fortress walls to laser-guided bombs. Tech leaders borrowed it for AI. In March 2022, former Google boss Eric Schmidt told a US Air Force conference that AI is "a force multiplier like you've never seen before."
See it in action
A two-person marketing team uses AI to draft, translate and test 30 versions of an advert in an afternoon, a job that once needed an agency. Same two people, much bigger output.
What people get wrong
- A force multiplier doesn't replace the force. If nobody knows what good looks like, AI just helps you make more mistakes, faster.
- It's become a buzzword. When someone calls a tool a force multiplier, ask: multiplies what, and by how much?
Go deeper
- ArticleWikipediaForce multiplicationThe military meaning, with real examples from GPS to the D-Day deception.
- ArticleGreg Hadley, Air & Space Forces Magazine, 2022Former Google CEO: AI Will Be ‘Force Multiplier Like You've Never Seen Before’Eric Schmidt's 2022 speech calling AI a force multiplier "like you've never seen before".
Related jargon
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