Vanity McDaniel and Jennifer Stadler provide a snapshot of how consumers pay for goods and services today and reflect on the latest technology trends in the U.S. payments system, including contactless payments, digital wallets, "buy now, pay later," instant payments, and the use of artificial intelligence. McDaniel is a senior payments business advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Stadler is executive vice president of marketing and membership at PaymentsFirst, a payments industry association.

The contributions of various sectors to aggregate productivity growth have shifted significantly since World War II.

Tom Barkin, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, looks back on recent economic trends and how they have shaped the current state of the national economy.

Pierre-Daniel Sarte and Sonya Waddell share survey results on businesses' use of AI tools and other forms of automation, and research on the potential effects of automation on the nation's overall productivity growth. Sarte is a senior advisor and Waddell is a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

As the capabilities of generative AI continue to improve, the CFO Survey can provide us insights on the impact these tools are having on firms and the growth of their productivity.

Technology improvements may not matter as much as the age and experience of the workforce.

Firms continue to innovate and automate, although responses from Fifth District business respondents illustrate that we are in the early days of AI adoption.

Nearly two-thirds of CFOs say their companies have a strategic priority to automate tasks typically performed by employees. Among firms that plan to automate in the next 12 months, a majority expect to implement AI to perform a wide range of tasks.

What are early studies suggesting about how AI may impact labor productivity?

Economic history and research can provide useful tools for thinking about the future of AI and the challenges and risks along the way.

Tom Bilston and Tony Murray of the Richmond Fed's bank supervision team discuss how banks use machine learning, chat bots and other forms of AI as well as what these technological innovations mean for bank examiners, both in terms of the risks they monitor and how they do their job.

Financial institutions have approached AI with cautious optimism, developing and implementing AI-based applications for things like customer service chatbots, detecting fraud, and evaluating creditworthiness. Bank supervisors are learning how to adapt.

MIT's Daron Acemoglu, the author of Why Nations Fail and Power and Progress, on Henry Ford, making AI worker-friendly, and how democracy improves economic growth.

Among the topics discussed were income growth volatility, AI's impact on productivity and how housing price changes affect young businesses.

University of Toronto economist on managing pandemics, allocating vaccines, and low-cost prediction with artificial intelligence.

Microsoft's former chief economist on conducting research at tech companies, entrepreneurship within large firms, and the effects of artificial intelligence on markets

Economists interested in AI have been puzzled by what some call a "productivity paradox," the gap between optimistic expectations about the economic effects of AI and the effects that appear in the data.

Whether it's a custom music playlist crafted for millions of users or interpreting X-rays and other scans, machine learning is having a substantial impact on a wide range of industries.