Anthropic’s Economic Index Reveals How AI is Shaping the Workplace
Anthropic’s Economic Index sheds light on AI’s role as a collaborator rather than an autonomous tool, providing unprecedented insight into real-world AI adoption.
Anthropic has introduced the Anthropic Economic Index, a new effort aimed at tracking the impact of AI on various industries. The findings shared exclusively with Axios, analyze anonymized data from Claude, the company’s chatbot, to reveal how professionals are integrating AI into their workflows.
What does this mean?
Unlike traditional economic measures, Anthropic’s Economic Index offers a direct look into AI’s role in modern work environments. AI providers are currently the only entities with real-time insight into usage trends. By publishing its findings, Anthropic aims to contribute to the broader understanding of AI’s evolving role in society.
“We’re in an AI revolution,” said Jack Clark, Anthropic’s co-founder and head of policy. “Society needs information about what AI is doing to the world, and we see this as a way to contribute data.”
Study’s Findings
Anthropic’s Economic Indexfound that AI is used more for augmentation (57%) — where AI assists human work — than for full automation (43%). This distinction highlights AI’s role in enhancing productivity rather than replacing jobs outright.
Clark noted that AI’s influence is still evolving. “The distinctions between fully delegating tasks to a language model versus working collaboratively are subtle and emerging right now.”
Among different professions, those in computer and mathematical fields — primarily software engineers — are the most active users, accounting for 37.2% of queries. AI’s popularity in these fields aligns with its strong capabilities in coding and debugging.
Another significant user group includes professionals in arts, design, sports, entertainment, and media, representing 10.3% of Claude’s queries. This suggests AI’s growing role in writing, editing, and creative tasks.
How It Works
Anthropic gathers its data using Clio, an internal tool designed to analyze Claude’s usage while maintaining user privacy. “It’s a sample of around a million conversations over a seven-day period,” said Deep Ganguli, leader of Anthropic’s societal impacts team. “We filter that sample down to only conversations that are actually about work.”
By focusing on work-related queries, the index provides an accurate snapshot of how AI is integrated into daily professional tasks.
What’s Next
Anthropic plans to update the index every six months to track shifts in AI adoption. As AI capabilities expand, so will its influence across industries. “A challenge in AI is you don’t know the full scope of the capabilities of the systems that are being released,” Clark explained. “It’s very different from, say, cars, where you know exactly how fast a model can go.”
In a move toward greater transparency, Anthropic is making its data publicly available for researchers to analyze. The company also encourages other AI firms to share similar insights. “We want to figure out how the AI industry should make itself legible to the rest of the world,” Clark said. “Some of that comes through company statements, but some of it comes through data.”
With AI adoption accelerating, studies like these will play a crucial role in shaping policies, guiding businesses, and informing the public about how AI is truly changing the way people work.
