The growing gap between economic analysis and technological reality requires new frameworks to understand AI’s economic impact. An AI engineer’s perspective reveals that tracking specific implementation projects could provide economists with the granular data needed to connect AI capabilities to economic outcomes. This approach offers a crucial bridge between technologists who focus on capabilities and economists who measure aggregate impacts—potentially revealing how specific AI advances directly translate to productivity and investment returns.
The disconnect: Economists and AI technologists lack a common language and timeline for assessing AI’s economic impact.
- Economists analyze aggregate data that arrives yearly, while technologists track capabilities and product releases that emerge almost daily.
- By the time economic data reflects AI’s impact, it becomes nearly impossible to connect specific technological advances to their economic outcomes.
What’s happening on the ground: AI implementation projects provide a revealing window into economic impact.
- An experienced AI engineer reports witnessing “incredible” developments with clear economic significance in recent months.
- These projects follow a predictable pattern: a new AI capability is released, companies identify use cases, build demos within months, and can deploy production systems in less than a year.
Connection points: Implementation projects reveal two critical economic indicators.
- The timing of demo development directly connects specific AI capabilities to categories of market opportunities.
- Implementation speed reflects the return on investment achievable with specific AI capabilities, providing insight into economic value creation.
Why this matters: This framework offers economists “handles” to grasp AI’s economic impact before traditional metrics capture it.
- Detailed examination of implementation projects can quantify investment timing and magnitude unlocked by specific AI capabilities.
- This approach helps identify which AI capabilities are most economically relevant, rather than technologically impressive.
Looking ahead: The engineer predicts demand for software development professionals will sharply increase in the next two years.
Recent Stories
DOE fusion roadmap targets 2030s commercial deployment as AI drives $9B investment
The Department of Energy has released a new roadmap targeting commercial-scale fusion power deployment by the mid-2030s, though the plan lacks specific funding commitments and relies on scientific breakthroughs that have eluded researchers for decades. The strategy emphasizes public-private partnerships and positions AI as both a research tool and motivation for developing fusion energy to meet data centers' growing electricity demands. The big picture: The DOE's roadmap aims to "deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale up in the 2030s," but acknowledges it cannot commit to specific funding levels and remains subject to Congressional appropriations. Why...
Oct 17, 2025Tying it all together: Credo’s purple cables power the $4B AI data center boom
Credo, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company specializing in data center cables and chips, has seen its stock price more than double this year to $143.61, following a 245% surge in 2024. The company's signature purple cables, which cost between $300-$500 each, have become essential infrastructure for AI data centers, positioning Credo to capitalize on the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure expansion as hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI rapidly build out massive computing facilities. What you should know: Credo's active electrical cables (AECs) are becoming indispensable for connecting the massive GPU clusters required for AI training and inference. The company...
Oct 17, 2025Vatican launches Latin American AI network for human development
The Vatican hosted a two-day conference bringing together 50 global experts to explore how artificial intelligence can advance peace, social justice, and human development. The event launched the Latin American AI Network for Integral Human Development and established principles for ethical AI governance that prioritize human dignity over technological advancement. What you should know: The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Vatican's research body for social issues, organized the "Digital Rerum Novarum" conference on October 16-17, combining academic research with practical AI applications. Participants included leading experts from MIT, Microsoft, Columbia University, the UN, and major European institutions. The conference...