---
title: "Fact of the Week: Firms Investing More in AI Experienced Roughly One Additional Percentage Point of Productivity Growth Per Year"
summary: |-
  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.
date: "2026-09-08"
issues: ["Artificial Intelligence", "Productivity"]
authors: ["Trelysa Long"]
content_type: "Blogs"
canonical_url: "https://itif.org/publications/2026/09/08/investing-more-ai-experienced-roughly-one-percentage-point-productivity-growth-per-year/"
---

# Fact of the Week: Firms Investing More in AI Experienced Roughly One Additional Percentage Point of Productivity Growth Per Year

**Source:** Tania Babina, et al., “[Canaries in the Gold Mine: Early Productivity Gains from Artificial Intelligence Creating Organizational Capital](https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35684/w35684.pdf)” (working paper 35684, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 2026).

**Commentary: **Firms that increased their investment in artificial intelligence experienced significantly faster productivity growth from 2018 to 2024, suggesting that the long-anticipated productivity gains from AI are beginning to materialize. The study found that a one-standard-deviation increase in the growth of a firm’s share of AI workers was associated with 6.2 percentage points greater sales-per-worker growth and 7.5 percentage points greater total factor productivity growth over six years, which translates to roughly one additional percentage point of productivity growth per year. These results are robust to alternative measures of AI and productivity and are not explained by acquisitions, offshoring, pre-existing productivity trends, or industry or pandemic shocks.

A key mechanism behind these gains is “organization capital,” which is defined as firm-specific knowledge, systems, processes, and capabilities that allow firms to operate more efficiently. AI jobs are almost twice as likely as non-AI jobs to build organization capital, at 58 percent compared with 31 percent. Moreover, the share of AI jobs that build organization capital increased from roughly half in 2010 to nearly two-thirds in 2024, while the share among non-AI jobs remained around one-third, indicating that AI work is becoming more OC oriented rather than all jobs becoming more OC-oriented. The article closes by highlighting that "firms at the frontier of AI investment serve as canaries—not in a coal mine warning of danger, but in a gold mine offering an early signal of AI’s broader potential."

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*Source: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)*
*URL: https://itif.org/publications/2026/09/08/investing-more-ai-experienced-roughly-one-percentage-point-productivity-growth-per-year/*