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Cathie Wood tells Fed-hosted panel AI-driven productivity could lift global GDP to '7% plus'
Summary
Cathie Wood, founder and CIO of ARK Invest, told the Federal Reserve–hosted panel that breakthroughs in AI and related technologies could accelerate global real GDP growth to more than 7% within five years, a claim panelists discussed but did not dispute.
Cathie Wood, founder and chief investment officer of ARK Invest, told a Federal Reserve–hosted panel on AI and payments that AI-driven productivity improvements could yield rapid macroeconomic growth.
"We believe that with the breakthroughs like this one... real GDP growth in the next 5 years will accelerate to 7% plus," Wood said, citing ARK's analysis of productivity gains enabled by converging technologies such as blockchain and AI. She contrasted the present wave of technological change to prior eras and argued that productivity improvements — including knowledge-worker gains enabled by AI — will be a major driver of that growth.
Wood placed the current technological moment in historical context, noting that global real GDP growth from 1500 to 1900 averaged roughly 0.6% per year and rose to about 3% after the industrial revolution. She said the present convergence of disruptive platforms could produce higher sustained productivity gains, though she acknowledged there will be uneven outcomes and some failed investments.
Panelists asked about the historical precedent and the labor-market implications of such productivity shifts. Wood and others said the transition will require substantial investment and organizational change, and that large enterprises may adopt these changes more slowly than consumers and startups. Wood also argued that new job categories will emerge and that the current demographic context — including retirements — affects labor supply dynamics.
The claim is an economic forecast from an investment manager and was presented as ARK Invest's projection; the panel did not produce empirical evidence to verify the figure during the session. The panel moved on to other topics after the discussion and later entered audience Q&A.
