This special issue investigates how artificial intelligence affects economic performance across firms, workers, industries and economies. While AI promises significant productivity improvements, these gains are not guaranteed and may be unevenly distributed, depending on complementary investments in skills, management practices and digital capabilities. The issue also examines new risks and adjustment costs that accompany AI adoption.
The collection seeks empirical and applied research exploring the conditions under which AI generates productivity gains and stronger economic performance, and what mechanisms drive these effects across different contexts. Rather than simply determining whether AI affects productivity, the special issue aims to explain why effects differ, what conditions are necessary to realise them, and how productivity gains interact with economic risks.