Where is AI in GDP statistics? | PIIE
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Publication Type<br>Policy Briefs
Where is AI in GDP statistics?
Subtitle<br>Filling the measurement gap
Anton Korinek (PIIE) and
Patrick McKelvey (Bank of Canada)
Policy Brief 26-7
May 2026
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Aly Song
Key Takeaways
Quality-adjusted AI production in the United States grew at over 2,000 percent per year in 2024 and 2025, driven by three compounding forces: expanding data-center capacity, hardware efficiency gains, and—the largest of the three—algorithmic progress.
Treating the AI sector as a coherent economic entity yields preliminary estimates of nominal AI GDP at approximately $250 billion in 2025, growing at roughly 2,600 percent per year in quality-adjusted real terms.
National economic statistics accounts were not designed to track this kind of activity. Statistics agencies should begin developing AI-focused satellite accounts now, before the measurement gap becomes a policy gap.
Body<br>The AI economy in the United States has been growing at an unprecedented rate, but this extraordinary growth is largely invisible in conventional GDP statistics. The authors propose developing an “AI GDP” framework to better measure AI’s growing role in the economy.
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Data Disclosure:
The data underlying this analysis are from Working Paper 26-9 [zip].
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