Productivity

Firms that increased their investment in artificial intelligence experienced significantly faster productivity growth from 2018 to 2024, roughly one additional percentage point of productivity growth per year.

The Democratic Party increasingly assumes the economy runs on autopilot, weakening its ability to articulate a serious vision for American economic strength.

Last year, the North American warehouse industry purchased more than 36,700 robots, the largest amount since 2022.

The United States is becoming less productive in manufacturing, even as productivity rises across nontraded sectors. To maintain U.S. industrial leadership, policymakers should incentivize manufacturers to adopt productivity-enhancing technologies.

Labor-displacing technology can cause temporary pain, but that reflects progress. Suppressing it won’t protect workers; it’ll sacrifice productivity and growth.

Manufacturing labor productivity growth is a key driver of the United States’ long-term economic performance and global competitiveness, but it has slowed sharply since 2005. Congress should provide a 25 percent tax credit to firms adopting productivity-enhancing technologies to help reverse this slowdown.

Labor unions have claimed that General Motors laid off more than 1,000 workers at its Factory Zero EV facility because it installed 50 AI-integrated manufacturing robots, but the layoffs were far more likely driven by weaker-than-expected EV demand and shifting production priorities. Policymakers should focus on helping workers adapt to automation through retraining rather than resisting productivity-enhancing technologies.

If the UN were serious about ending poverty and improving living standards worldwide, it would make productivity growth the organizing principle of its sustainable development agenda.

OECD data shows there is a consistent, positive relationship between the share of firms using AI and a country’s GDP per hour worked.

The U.S. government needs to do what many nations around the world are already doing by leaning into rail technologies such as positive track control and automated track inspection, not resisting them on behalf of special interests.