Behind the Markets Podcast · Friday, September 4, 2026
Despite discussions around AI boosting productivity, current economic data does not yet show a significant surge. The speaker notes that while hiring and hours worked are up, output per hour has not dramatically increased, questioning if AI is the primary driver.
“Is AI causing a big surge in productivity? I thought this quarter might really have shown it and, uh, it doesn't show it.”
“Now, with all these people and more hours, hey, productivity is gonna jump that much. Again, we have to get the final data. But this puts, yeah, and in a way, the good news, bad news. It's when you hire a lot of people, um, uh, you know, maybe this is explaining why we're having, uh, GDP looking like it is in the mid three range.”