The Hoover Institution hosted Productivity Gains And Labor Pains: What Will AI Do To Jobs? on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 from 5:00-7:00 pm PT in the Hauck Auditorium, David and Joan Traitel Building.
Artificial intelligence is transforming our economy faster than any technology in modern times. AI will fundamentally change how work gets done and what skills are required to do it. That change carries enormous promise, but it is critical that leaders act to ensure that we are prepared for the transition. AI is not waiting. This was a timely and thought-provoking discussion about how AI is reshaping the workplace and what leaders need to do in response.
Session 1: Augmentation or Automation? What AI means for Work
Featuring Erik Brynjolfsson, Karin Kimbrough, and Peter McCrory - in conversation with Steven Davis.
Erik Brynjolfsson is a professor, author, and inventor. At Stanford, he is a professor at the Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) and director of the Digital Economy Lab, with positions at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Economics Department, and the Graduate School of Business. His research and speaking focus on the economics of AI and digital technologies, including their effects on productivity, business strategy, and the future of work. Brynjolfsson is a best-selling author of several books including The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. Brynjolfsson holds five patents and is the cofounder of Workhelix Inc., which helps companies identify opportunities for generative AI.
Steven J. Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and director of research at the Hoover Institution, and a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and cofounder of the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, the US Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, and the Global Survey of Working Arrangements. Davis cocreated several influential economic indices and surveys, including the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index. He cohosts the Hoover podcast Economics, Applied and cofounded the Asian Monetary Policy Forum in Singapore.
Karin Kimbrough is the chief economist for LinkedIn, where she leads a team devoted to surfacing thought leadership on the world of work. Prior to joining LinkedIn in 2020, she served as the assistant treasurer for Google and the head of macroeconomic policy at Bank of America. In addition, Kimbrough worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the Markets Group for nearly a decade and as an economist at Morgan Stanley in London and New York. She serves on the board of directors for the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a master’s from Harvard University, and a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford.
Peter McCrory is head of economics at Anthropic, where he leads the Economic Research team. Prior to joining Anthropic, McCrory was the head of labor research at LinkedIn’s Economic Graph Research Institute, after having worked on an applied science and market design team. Earlier in his career, McCrory was a US economist at J.P. Morgan and a research associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Session 2: What Should Leaders Do? Getting AI Policy Right
Featuring James Manyika, Gina Raimondo, and Rishi Sunak - in conversation with Condoleezza Rice.
James Manyika is the President of Research, Labs, Technology and Society at Google-Alphabet. He focuses on technology and society in areas ranging from AI and computing infrastructure to the future of work, the digital economy, and sustainability that have potential for broad impact on society. He is senior partner emeritus of McKinsey & Company and is chair and director emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute. He was appointed by President Obama to serve as vice chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, and by previous commerce secretaries to the Digital Economy Board of Advisors and the National Innovation Board. He is vice chair of the president’s National AI Advisory Committee. Manyika is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Responsible Computing and serves on the boards of research institutes at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the University of Toronto. He has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; a distinguished fellow of Stanford’s AI Institute; a distinguished fellow in ethics and AI at Oxford; a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford; and a fellow of DeepMind. A Rhodes Scholar, Manyika received a DPhil, MSc, and MA from Oxford in AI, robotics, and computation and a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe.
Gina M. Raimondo is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. From March 2021 through January 2025 she was the US secretary of commerce. As secretary, she focused on making America more competitive by driving job creation, fostering innovation, and strengthening national security. Under her leadership, the Department of Commerce made historic investments in internet access, manufacturing, workforce training, and climate readiness through initiatives such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. She oversaw $39 billion in incentives for microchip manufacturing, $40 billion in broadband grants, and significant investments in climate resilience and minority business support. Raimondo has also led efforts on AI development, launching the US AI Safety Institute and establishing the International Network of AI Safety Institutes. As the seventy-fifth governor of Rhode Island and its first woman governor, she focused on economic development, infrastructure, and education. Raimondo served as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association and was Rhode Island’s general treasurer before becoming governor. She is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar), and Yale Law School.
Condoleezza Rice is the Tad and Dianne Taube Director and the Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. She is also the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a founding partner of international strategic consulting firm Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC. Rice served as the sixty-sixth US secretary of state (2005–9) and as national security advisor (2001–5) in the George W. Bush administration. She previously served on President George H. W. Bush’s National Security Council staff and as Stanford University’s provost. She has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the university’s highest teaching honors. Rice is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded more than fifteen honorary doctorates.
Rishi Sunak serves as a conservative member of Parliament for Richmond and Northallerton and the William C. Edwards Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Sunak was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024. His tenure was marked by a return to economic stability; the UK’s taking a global leadership position in new technologies such as artificial intelligence; and its increasing defense spending so the country was better equipped to stand up to the new axis of authoritarian states. Sunak was chancellor of the exchequer from 2020 to 2022. As chancellor, he led the country’s economic response to COVID-19. His business support measures including, for the first time in the UK, a furlough scheme saved millions of jobs, preventing mass unemployment. Before entering politics, Sunak had a career in finance. He worked at Goldman Sachs and the Children’s Investment Fund, and cofounded an investment firm supporting British businesses.
