A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that output in U.S. businesses is trending higher, even though head count has barely moved. A few years ago you might have blamed pent-up demand or a lucky sales run. In late 2025, the more honest explanation is that a growing share of your team has a chatbot open in the background.

The St. Louis Fed’s national U.S. adoption tracker, built on its Real-Time Population Survey, shows generative AI use jumping 10% in a single year. The new analysis of adoption and productivity argues those extra minutes are starting to show up in macro data.

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