Official portrait of Lisa Cook, June 2022; not a photograph from Oakland Tech Week. Photo: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System / Wikimedia Commons. U.S. public domain. Responsive display; cropped in some story cards.
Event or reference date: September 28, 2026
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said on September 28 that artificial intelligence appears to be adding to near-term inflation pressure, even as she expects productivity gains to offer some relief over the next few years.
In prepared remarks for Oakland Tech Week, Cook pointed to demand for construction labour, energy and other inputs used by data centres. Her concern is that investment in AI can raise demand before the wider economy benefits from producing more efficiently.
The timing matters
Cook said she does not expect the productivity effects to arrive quickly enough to offset broader price pressure later this year. She stressed uncertainty over when gains will emerge and how widely they will spread.
On jobs, she described a risk that workers’ skills and available positions could become mismatched during the transition. She also saw scope for AI to help smaller businesses compete and grow.
These are Cook’s assessments of a developing technology and its economic effects. The speech is not a new interest-rate decision or a guarantee that AI will lower prices or increase employment.
Sources and reporting method
Governor Lisa Cook: AI and the economy, September 28
Prepared with AI assistance from the public documents linked above. This article contains no on-scene reporting or independent interviews.
