The AI Economy Institute (AIEI) launches its third cohort of researchers, We advance our mission to understand the adoption of artificial intelligence across economies, industries and communities.
We created the AI Economy Institute because the economic impact of AI is not predetermined. Although AI is being deployed rapidly, the evidence base for understanding its impact on work, jobs, education, productivity and opportunities is still sparse. By expanding the science around the AI economy and delivering it in a timely and accessible way, we can help ensure that as AI transforms our world, we equip people with the knowledge and tools they need to make decisions and succeed with AI.
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Our 2026 AI Economy Institute cohort
The AI Economy Institute brings together external experts and researchers to share their perspectives and expand the body of knowledge on topics related to AI, work and education. Our third The global research call focused on understanding how pioneering companies are reshaping work and the broader economic landscape.
Representing a diverse group of institutions worldwide, our cohort brings together subject matter experts and researchers to examine how AI is transforming the workforce, organizations, and the broader economy. The cohort consists of the following people representing the following institutions:
- Brian JabarianCarnegie Mellon University
- Caspar David Peter, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Christoph Siemroth, University of Essex, England
- Daniel Yue, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Edoardo Maria AcabbiUniversity of Mannheim, Germany
- Frank Nagle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Consulting Fellow and Cohort 2)
- Friederike Mengel, University of Essex, England; Erasmus University Rotterdam, Germany
- Gianmarco Ottaviano, Bocconi University, Italy
- Ilan Strauss, AI disclosure project
- John Wachs, Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary
- Luca Henkel, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Luca Mazzone, University of Montreal, Canada
- Laura Nurski, Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Belgium (Cohort 2)
- Meeyoung (Mia) Cha, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
- Mustafa Afacan, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), United Arab Emirates; Sabancı University, Türkiye (World Bank Affiliated Senior Fellow)
- Nataliya Wright, Columbia University
- Nuriye Melisa Bilgin, Koç University, Türkiye
- Pellumb Reshidi, Florida State University
- Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Belgium (Advisory Fellow and Cohort 2)
- Salman Khan, Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI), United Arab Emirates (World Bank Affiliated Senior Fellow)
- Serena Booth, Brown University
- Wesley Rosslyn-Smith, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Consultant)
- Yingfei Wang, Foster School of Business, University of Washington
Cohort members will analyze frontier businesses to examine both upstream, enterprise-level transformations and downstream, economy-wide impacts. Researchers will also examine how AI is changing work design, skill requirements, productivity and regional economic development.
AIEI’s first two cohorts examined how AI is transforming the talent pipeline, from higher education and skills to K-12, community colleges and entry-level careers, so we can understand and inform early changes in the job market. What we learned from this investigation changed the focus; This year’s cohort delves further into the economy itself, focusing on pioneering companies and how leading companies are adopting AI, reshaping work, and enabling productivity, distribution, and human agency at scale.
Interpreting the Boundary: What This Means for Policy and Strategy
Since its inception, the AI Economy Institute has received more than 800 responses to our calls for research proposals. The gap between what AI systems can do and what companies can actually deploy will influence the pace of adoption. Productivity improvements can accompany organizational change as companies adapt their workflows, teams and decision-making processes.
At the same time, the expansion of automation raises the question of whether systems improve or displace human learning. Underlying all of this is greater uncertainty about the extent to which AI will spread widely across economies or be concentrated in a limited number of companies and regions.
Cohort 3 moves beyond identifying these tensions to generating the empirical evidence needed to address them. It provides policymakers, companies and institutions with a clearer basis for decision-making in a rapidly evolving AI economy.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2026/07/07/new-cohort-of-ai-economy-institute-fellows-to-examine-frontier-ai-firms-and-the-transformation-of-work/
