Tiny Teams With AI: What the Evidence Shows—and What It Still Doesn’t
AI can make a small team more capable. Public evidence still does not show that three-person AI-native teams outperform well-designed cross-functional teams at scale. The data supports local acceleration: research, coding, testing, and delivery activity can all move faster. It does not establish a universal optimal team size. This article maps the four conditions that determine whether a team of two or three can work sustainably—and two stress tests that reveal where it will break first. ...