Generative AI

Authors:     Alex Bick, Adam Blandin, David Deming

Latest Draft:     06/2025 (St. Louis Fed Blog Post)

Summaries:  VoxEU, The Project on Workforce

Press / Policy: Reuters, NPR: Planet Money,  Psychology Today, Speech by Fed Governor Lisa Cook , Harvard Gazette, The Economist, CNET, International Energy Agency (IEA), Marketplace, Barron's (feature), Barron's, Congressional Budget Office, Barron's, Inter-Governmental AI Safety Report, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, Slow Boring, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes 

Abstract:     Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is a potentially important new technology, but its impact on the economy depends on the speed and intensity of adoption. This paper reports results from a series of nationally representative U.S. surveys of generative AI use at work and at home. As of late 2024, nearly 40% of the U.S. population age 18-64 uses generative AI. Among employed respondents, 23% used generative AI for work at least once in the previous week: 9% used it every workday, and 14% on some but not all workdays. Relative to each technology's first mass-market product launch, work adoption of generative AI has been as fast as the personal computer (PC), and overall adoption has been faster than either PCs or the internet. Generative AI and PCs have very similar early work adoption patterns by education, occupation, and other characteristics. Between 1 and 5% of all work hours are currently assisted by generative AI, and respondents report time savings equivalent to 1.4% of total work hours. This suggests that substantial productivity gains from generative AI are possible.