AxiosJul 28, 2026

AI is only "part" of high U.S. productivity growth, says Stripe economist

AI appears to improve workers' efficiency in a number of sectors. The U.S. has experienced a surge in economy-wide productivity in the last couple of years. But the former isn't necessarily driving the latter. The big picture: Companies are achieving more output per person-hour of labor because they are making better use of existing capital, a provocative new analysis finds — not, at the moment at least, by making major use of AI. AI advances may be generating substantial micro-level gains in some sectors, but so far are not the driver of one of the most important macro trends of the last couple of years, finds Ernie Tedeschi, chief economist at Stripe. State of play: A surge in labor productivity — after a couple of decades of subpar improvement — has been one of the best pieces of news about the U.S. economy in the last few years. Over the last year, output per hour worked is up 2.5%, compared with 1.6% annually over the last 20 years, Tedeschi wrote. That may sound like a small g

axios.com