Sixteen semi-structured interviews with project management professionals across two merging Swiss insurance organisations were analysed using hybrid thematic analysis.All 16 participants reported task-level productivity gains, accounting for 42 of 53 value creation passages. These gains are individually appropriated: no participant describes GenAI generating measurable organisational financial return. Value destruction operates through a fluent failure mode. GenAI outputs enter organisational workflows without adequate verification, producing quality degradation invisible at the point of use. Skill atrophy through repeated delegation and the social performance of GenAI-generated capability as unassisted professional competence extend the costs to individual cognitive and professional domains. Organisational conditions sustaining this asymmetry include governance by containment, hype-driven adoption that precedes governance readiness, and training designed for legal protection rather than behavioural change.

The GenAI Value Paradox Framework offers a three-layer account of this within-organisation asymmetric structure, narrowing the unit of analysis of the IT productivity paradox from between-firm variation to within-organisation asymmetry.