AI, Labor, Productivity and the Need for Firm-Level Data
Open accessAbstract
We summarize existing empirical findings regarding the adoption of robotics and AI and its effects on aggregated labor and productivity, and argue for more systematic collection of the use of these technologies at the firm level.Existing empirical work primarily uses statistics aggregated by industry or country, which precludes in-depth studies regarding the conditions under which robotics and AI complement or are substituting for labor.Further, firm-level data would also allow for studies of effects on firms of different sizes, the role of market structure in technology adoption, the impact on entrepreneurs and innovators, and the effect on regional economies amongst others.We highlight several ways that such firm-level data could be collected and used by academics, policymakers and other researchers.
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There is as yet hardly any reliable data on the use of AI from an organizational perspective; even quantitative data with regard to AI at the firm level is still a clear research lacuna.
“There as yet hardly any reliable data on the use of AI from an organizational perspective; even quantitative data with regard to AI at the”
From Keeping the organization in the loop: a socio-technical extension of human-centered artificial intelligence (2023) · cites this paper as Seamans and Raj 2018
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“There as yet hardly any reliable data on the use of AI from an organizational perspective; even quantitative data with regard to AI at the “firm level” is still a clear research lacuna (Seamans and Raj 2018).”
BackgroundHow Does AI Improve Human Decision-Making? Evidence from the AI-Powered Go Program
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- Authors
- Seamans, R., & Raj, M.
- Affiliations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
- Venue
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Publisher
- National Bureau of Economic Research
- Published
- 2018-01
- OpenAlex
- W2785260749
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 5
- Type
- report
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Impact of AI and Big Data on Business and Society
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Growth and Productivity
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence adoption, robotics adoption, labor productivity, labor substitution, firm-level data, technology adoption, firm size, market structure, entrepreneurship, regional economy, data collection
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