Investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure is helping sustain annual global economic growth of roughly 3% despite elevated energy prices, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in Bangkok at the opening of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. Asian economies producing AI hardware, including Thailand, are the principal beneficiaries. Georgieva estimated additional growth of 0.5 to 1 percentage point for advanced Asian economies and 0.2 to 0.8 points for emerging Asian economies.
The expansion reflects substantial demand: major technology companies plan to spend between $660 billion and $690 billion on AI this year. AI hardware and related technology products already represent more than a tenth of global goods trade. Yet Georgieva warned that AI's influence extends beyond economic growth, encompassing employment, education, and government tax collection. The IMF expects approximately 40% of jobs worldwide to be affected, with some enhanced and others degraded or rendered unnecessary. Exposure reaches about 60% in richer countries, compared with 23% in the poorest countries.
Young labor-market entrants face the earliest disruption as routine entry-level roles disappear. Singapore's President Tharman Shanmugaratnam similarly highlighted declining demand for graduates seeking their first jobs. He cautioned that, without government intervention, AI could widen disparities in growth and employment between wealthy and developing economies. These employment concerns accompany the economic benefits of AI spending: investment is supporting growth, while the transformation of work presents different challenges across countries and for people beginning their careers.
