AI will slowly transform the economy: Economist

The tech sector has been spearheading market growth this year as the AI race shows no signs of slowing. RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas joins Market Domination Overtime to discuss the AI boom and how it is transforming the industry.

"I think that [AI's] going to be part of the economic narrative. It's really about the shadow of the future. It's going to drive growth, perhaps not as much as the hype that's out there, but there's a fundamental business case for AI," Brusuelas explains.

He adds that the technology will also be integral to the productivity boom, which he notes is still a couple of years away. However, Brusuelas tells Jared Blikre and Julie Hyman that despite the initial hype, AI will slowly transform the economy over time.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Market Domination Overtime.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video Transcript

Um you know, I wanna bring in our next guest here today and actually get his comment on this.

I'm, I'm throwing up a bit of a curveball.

That's Joe Brusuelas RSM, chief economist, friend of the show.

Great to see you here in studio Joe.

We are gonna talk about jobs, we are gonna talk about economic data, but when we see this phenomenon that has been not just in video but the whole A I push here.

How are you framing it as an economic driver?

You know, we talked to Darren um Lou yesterday and he said it's not gonna contribute as much to economic growth as people think.

How are you thinking about it?

Funny.

I just spent a week at MIT I got to talk to, to Darren and other people there.

Look, I think that it's gonna be part of the economic narrative.

It's really about the shadow of the future.

It's gonna drive growth, perhaps not as much as the hype out there, but there's a fundamental business case for A I second.

It's going to be part of the productivity boom.

Now we've got productivity boom.

Now that's not really even organized around A I that's still a couple years away.

So I'm incredibly optimistic around the entire ecosystem that has to do with A I and all of its components.

Moreover, I think it's a general purpose technology like steam or electricity that's going to transform the economy slowly over time.

You know, there's going to be a portion of, of the population, people who watch Yahoo finance, who are gonna utilize A I in a way that's separate and distinct from the rest of the country.

We'll see it there first.

You know, here in New York, all of our friends who work at the, the systemically important banks, they've got research labs, they've been using A I and machine learning to manage their portfolios for a couple of years.

They're way out in front of what's going on.

It's one of the reasons why we, as economists we've put on financial corporate productivity because if we use the productivity in some parts of the corporate sector of the banks, it really skew the numbers.

So we know about this, we can feel it, see it, it's tangible when I open my quarterly statements for our portfolio.

I know they're using this.

I can see it in returns where I see it when I get an email from my kids middle school warning them.

We have ways of knowing if you're using A I I don't know if they really do but you know, so, so it is spreading beyond already it's spreading beyond just the sort of corporate sector.

No.

And we, we've all learned to incorporate in my life.

I travel a lot on business.

I got the privilege of speaking on the US and global economy and uh the airline that I choose to use A I runs their app extensively.

It managed my whole experience in a smooth way to be honest with you that humans didn't.

It's really improved the overall experience for the business traveler from my point of view, based on our air carrier of choice.