AI and the global economy: Productivity, jobs, and inflation

Artificial intelligence is moving from promise to practical impact, reshaping companies, industries, and the global economy. In this new season of The Angle from T. Rowe Price, we look beyond the hype to examine where AI may create lasting value, where expectations may be too high, and what investors should be watching as the technology moves into the real economy. Across the series, T. Rowe Price investors and experts explore the next phase of AI adoption, from the infrastructure and capital investment required to support it, to the rise of agentic AI, physical AI, sleeper beneficiaries, and the wider implications for productivity, labor markets, inflation, and growth. In this epiosde, Arif Husain and Blerina Uruci examine how the rapid expansion of AI investment is already supporting economic growth and productivity, while creating complex and potentially conflicting effects across inflation, employment and global markets. They also explore how the debt required to finance the AI build-out could keep borrowing costs elevated.