Jaison R. Abel and coauthors argue in Liberty Street Economics that AI reshapes work

Jaison R. Abel and coauthors argue in Liberty Street Economics that AI reshapes work

Published September 1, 2026, Jaison R. Abel, Richard Deitz, Natalia Emanuel, and Nick Montalbano argue in Liberty Street Economics that businesses are using AI to change work more often than to eliminate jobs. Their surveys of firms in New York and Northern New Jersey found that AI use had spread, while investment and the share of workers using it remained limited. Layoffs were uncommon in the survey responses; retraining existing workers was more common, and some firms hired workers to help use AI. The authors do not argue that AI has no costs for workers: they note that one study suggests entry-level workers may face barriers when AI substitutes for routine tasks. They describe training employees to use AI in current jobs, including instruction on checking outputs, bias, and data security. The authors conclude that, so far, firms have more often augmented workers than replaced them, while warning that patterns could shift as adoption matures. Their surveys describe regional firms, and do not establish what workforce effects will be across all workplaces.

Publication: ccd73b2e-27e8-dcf0-0e53-b845a0214366

attribution — pass: The reading correctly attributes the post to Jaison R. Abel, Richard Deitz, Natalia Emanuel, and Nick Montalbano in the New York Fed's Liberty Street Economics, matching the byline and citation. It is a single article, not a listing.

Jaison R. Abel, Richard Deitz, Natalia Emanuel, and Nick Montalbano

summary — uncertain: The summary is clear and preserves the authors' thesis, caveats and entry-level concern. However, it mentions only firms that hired more workers to use AI. It omits the source's explicit point that some firms scaled back hiring, about 15 percent of service firms versus about 13 percent hiring more. This tilts the workforce picture toward the upside. Smallest repair: add that some firms reported hiring fewer workers because of AI, while others added workers to help use it.

while some firms have scaled back hiring due to AI, others have added workers to help them use it.

date — pass: The instant 2026-09-01T11:00Z corresponds to September 1, 2026, which matches the article dateline. The reading states the date at day precision. The retrieval note does not use hindsight. The later 'You may also be interested in' links are not used. The page kind is publisher-page, so no archive disclosure is needed.

September 1, 2026 Businesses Are Using AI to Transform Work, Not Cut Jobs

support — pass: Each claim matches its excerpt and is attributed to the authors. The adoption figures, limited investment, rare layoffs versus retraining, the entry-level study, and the conditional conclusion are all supported. The question follows from the authors' own caveat that patterns could shift. The limitation on regional scope is supported.

Evidence from our surveys so far confirms what many studies are showing: that AI has been more likely to augment workers than replace them.

media — pass: No media is selected, and no verified media candidates were supplied, so leaving the media empty is appropriate.