The American worker is on a productivity tear and it may have more to do with a surge in working from home than the effects of AI, according to a Stanford economist.
For the past five years, the output for non-farm businesses has increased by a sizable 2% per year, The Economist reported citing statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a marked increase from the 1% productivity growth per year that defined most of the 2010s, and a trend that has taken even Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell by surprise.
Yet, while the hype around AI over the past several years makes it a logical candidate for the main driver behind the productivity boom, Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford economics professor who is known for explaining the Great Resignation of the early 2020s, says it’s more likely work-from-home policies since the pandemic are fueling the trend.
The commons got a taste of freedom and decided they liked it.
If companies would work with their employees to better their lives, productivity would follow even more. AI is not why there is a productivity swing. Look at all all the problems and backtracking being done because of AI, even while there is more of a push for it.
I question some of the numbers. “Productivity” is a word thrown around in my workplace too, but it doesn’t mean what the dictionary has for it, it means the numbers are cooked to make things seem great.