It started with ChatGPT, and then there was no looking back for the American, and even the global, economy. Next came Gemini, Claude, and Deepseek. Newer and more advanced AI tools are being rolled out like never before. I can already see the effects of that.

I do watch many YouTube videos where economists and other experts are terrified that AI tools will dramatically reduce the number of entry-level roles for college graduates. Some experts say that there has already been as much as a 29% decrease in these positions since the beginning of last year. So, it’s time to explore exactly how the American economy is changing after the AI revolution.

It’s Time to go in a Time Machine!

Let’s travel back a few decades in time. It was the late 1990s, and companies were hiring software developers and programmers like crazy to fix the Y2K bug. They were also swept up by the dot.com craze, which was marketed to end the decades-long dominance that traditional retailers had held on American consumers. The Y2K bug resulted in the introduction of new technologies that gave America’s economy a real edge.

While most of the dot.coms went under, some of them survived, and their very nature changed how Americans lived, worked, and shopped forever. Advanced technologies became deeply embedded in the very fabric and core operations of corporate America. Workers needed to be technologically literate to be hired for roles after the late 1990s.

Then Came the Pandemic

COVID-19 first appeared in late 2019 and went global rapidly after that. 2020-2021 were the ‘pandemic years.’ Companies began to begrudgingly let employees work remotely for the bulk of the time to try to shield them from the virus. Most people stayed indoors all the time. So, normal work, shopping, and even living patterns were disrupted.

The trouble is that workers enjoyed the freedom that working remotely offered them. They were often loathe to go back to the office for even a few days a week. People became more accustomed to being on digital devices constantly. That set the stage for the AI revolution, which started in late 2022 when ChatGPT was rolled out.

The First AI Models Were Far From Impressive, but…

I tried the most basic (and free) version of ChatGPT a few months after it first came out in 2023. What I witnessed was definitely not impressive. For starters, its writing was very boring, monotonous, and academic. I didn’t like its writing style at all. Additionally, none of its research went into much detail. It literally skimmed the first few articles that ranked on Google and summarized them very briefly.

I found that 40% of its core research was wrong. The companies that make AI tools even admit that these tools often ‘hallucinate.’ ChatGPT spit out decent content in a few seconds. I would have taken about 15-20 minutes to research and type out those 3-4 paragraphs on my computer. I did find that the AI tool did find some topic areas that I would have never found on my own.

ChatGPT gets some more credit since I ran its output through a leading free plagiarism checker tool–Smallseotools–there was no plagiarism in its content.

Sure, ChatGPT had its issues, but the corporate world and masses still eagerly embraced it. That set the stage for newer and better models to come on the market. Sure enough, angel investors and venture capitalists poured billions into AI startups and new models–Anthropic, Claude, Gemini, and better versions of ChatGPT quickly flooded the market.

Now, AI tools are commonly used, both in the workplace and their names are well-known in the post-modern English vocabulary.

The American Workplace is About to Become More Productive

As a writer, I often hear this phrase, “ChatGPT won’t replace you, but a writer who knows how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools will” Indeed, AI tools aren’t just being integrated into the content and digital marketing sectors. They are changing how all sectors–from farming to medicine work. The effects are telling. I wrote about fresh software coding graduates being forced to work at Chipotle and other low-end restaurants because AI was taking over their jobs.

AI tools are getting better, but there is a point at which they won’t be able to advance much anymore. But AI tools will make remaining American workers much more productive. They will propel the American and global economies into the digital and post-modern worlds.

American Workers Will Gain That Much-Needed Competitive Edge

Goldman Sachs’ most recent report projects that the American economy could benefit the most from the 7% growth rate the world economy is expected to grow at for the next decade. AI integration will boost the global and American economies more modestly at 1.5% and 1.7% respectively, according to Goldman Sachs.

There will be many job losses and many workers may be unable to reskill or retrain. The bulk of the remaining jobs and newly created jobs (over the next 10 years) will rely heavily on AI for productivity. That’s important because AI will make the average American worker much more productive. That’s necessary if America wants to retain its economic edge. More productive workers also get paid more.

Few Sectors Will Be Unaffected by AI

I mentioned that most industries will experience AI integration. That’s especially true of key sectors. Let me describe each of these sectors in more detail and explain exactly how AI will affect them.

Finance and Banking

It turns out that AI is better at detecting fraudulent activities and transactions than humans are. Big surprise, right? AI can model risky customers and situations better than even the most experienced humans. That’s a big bonus for banks when doing a risk assessment for a loan or an investment. Many banks are replacing customer service reps with AI prompts and tools.

Though that trend may reverse since I have read about customer complaints regarding communicating with an AI bot instead of a real human. There was a real lack of personalization, professionalism, and communication of knowledge in those instances. But companies that are automating customer service are seeing that customer inquiries and queries are getting resolved faster and more completely than they were with human reps.

Manufacturing

AI integration is making predictive maintenance faster and better. Manufacturing units are more productive as well because more robots are making products (as opposed to humans). Companies are able to do better quality control because of advanced AI tools. That results in safer and better-quality products for the end-consumer.

Companies and factories that use AI tools to their fullest capacities are 20% more efficient and much more productive than those that use traditional manufacturing methods.

Healthcare

Doctors use AI tools to diagnose and (sometimes even treat) patients better and faster. Patient quality of life improves dramatically as well.

Retail and Ecommerce

This sector was impacted heavily by the technologies that informed the digital revolution. AI tools send personalized and insightful messages which increase conversion rates and increase customer loyalty. Companies benefit from larger orders and a much larger and stronger customer base. Customers get superior brands faster. So, it’s a win-win situation for all parties involved.

America’s Economy is at a Cross-Roads

But the thing is that the American economy has been at a cross-roads before and emerged even stronger. However, there was less global competition at those points in history. American enterprises and firms must learn how to integrate AI tools into daily operations and processes to continue to remain super productive.