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Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said he will attend a Nov. 16 field hearing in the San Francisco Bay Area held by the central bank’s <a href="https://bitcomme.com/gartner-says-only-3-of-organizations-are-getting-ai-cost-savings-from-productivity-yet-85-plan-to-spend-more/” title=”Gartner says only 3% of organizations are getting AI cost savings from productivity, yet 85% plan to spend more”>productivity and jobs task force, part of an effort to gather outside views on technology and its effect on monetary policy. Speaking after the Fed held rates steady, he said the session will examine whether AI delivers a rapid productivity surge or a gradual one, whether it makes price stability harder or easier to achieve, and what it means for jobs in the near and longer term. Warsh said five task forces are active and some will hit year-end deadlines, though their findings are unlikely to feed into policy now.
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Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will take part in a Nov. 16 field hearing in the San Francisco Bay Area hosted by the central bank’s task force on productivity and jobs, an event intended to gather a wide range of outside views on technology, efficiency gains and what they mean for monetary policy.
Speaking at a news conference after the Fed left interest rates unchanged, Warsh said the session would look at how artificial intelligence could lift productivity across three horizons: the near term, the medium term and the long term. He framed the core question in terms of speed and scale.
“Is this a productivity miracle that’s going to happen, or will it happen slowly? I know I, for one, am keenly interested in refining my own views on that question,” he said.
The chair said the task force would also weigh whether faster AI adoption makes the Fed’s job of holding inflation at bay harder or easier in the years ahead, and how it might reshape employment. The jobs question, he noted, extends to the short run as well as the longer horizon, with much of the discussion to be held openly.
“Is this going to make it harder or easier for us to achieve price stability over the next several years? What are the implications for jobs, medium and long term, but near term too? So we’re going to explore those largely in the public realm on November 16th,” Warsh said.
He also offered a status report on the broader advisory effort, saying five task forces are working actively and have checked in with the central bank at intervals. Some of them will reach their year-end deadlines, according to the chair, though he cautioned that their conclusions are unlikely to shape policy at the current juncture.
The hearing puts the Fed’s research agenda squarely in the middle of a debate that has split economists: whether generative AI will deliver a durable jump in output per worker or a slower, more uneven diffusion through the economy. For investors, the practical stakes are the path of rates. A clear productivity upswing would allow the economy to grow faster without stoking inflation, easing pressure on policymakers. A weak or delayed payoff would leave the Fed with less room to maneuver.
Warsh’s willingness to sit through a public session in the heart of the technology industry signals that the central bank wants the discussion on the record rather than confined to internal memos. The November gathering will not produce a policy decision, but the questions posed there could shape how the Fed reads productivity data for quarters to come.
