On 6 March 2025, the Robert Schuman Centre’s EMU Lab hosted Professor Philippe Aghion, a leading scholar in growth and innovation, who shared insights from various studies by notable researchers on the growth, impact, and potential of artificial intelligence (AI). His Annual Lecture covered AI’s historical evolution, its influence on productivity, innovation, and employment, and the need for effective policies to guide its development. A major focus of the lecture was on how AI can drive economic growth and productivity. Prof. Aghion explained that AI has the potential to improve productivity by automating tasks not only in the production of goods and services but also in the generation of ideas.
"Technologically speaking, AI has a big growth potential. It even has employment creation potential. But this requires appropriate institutions and policies," Prof. Aghion said. AI’s ability to automate tasks in both production and idea generation can accelerate economic growth more quickly than past technologies like electricity or information technology (IT).
According to Aghion, AI also plays an important role in innovation. By automating the production of ideas, AI expands the information available to innovators. This helps them identify more possible solutions and explore different approaches to problems.
The potential impact of AI on employment was another key topic in the lecture. The speaker noted that while AI might lead to job displacement in some areas, it also holds the potential for job creation — but this depends on how AI is integrated into various sectors and the policies put in place to manage its development.
"AI still has a positive effect on employment when it's used for production processes or ICT security, but it has a slightly negative effect when it's used for administration processes", Aghion stated.
The full lecture is also available here.
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The Economic and Monetary Union Laboratory (EMU Lab) is a collaborative initiative driven by the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Chair and the Pierre Werner Chair, aiming to reassess the Economic and Monetary Union's structure in light of current European and global economic conditions.