🔮 Anthropic’s Head of Economics on AI adoption, Claude Code, the burden of knowledge & future experts

We understand the coal industry better than the AI economy right now. Anthropic’s Economics team, led by Peter McCrory, is changing that. I invited Peter to break down their latest findings in the Economic Index report.

(00:00) Anthropic’s Economic Index report
(01:20) Claude’s two distinct usage patterns
(06:22) Examining AI’s impact on the labor market
(09:20) Where most businesses think too small
(12:03) Why extracting tacit knowledge is so important
(20:33) How do we create the next generation of experts?
(23:22) Why people need to develop cognitive endurance
(29:55) Long-term vs. short-term productivity
(35:56) The future of human knowledge
(37:46) Could AI’s greatest impact go unmeasured?
(41:55) How task bottlenecks have moved
(46:09) Implementation resembles a staircase - not a curve
(50:47) “Capability doesn't instantly deliver adoption”

Here are eleven papers to deepen your understanding and complement the episode.

1. Anthropic Economic Index Report (2026) - The primary subject of discussion. Analyzes millions of Claude conversations to map where AI augments vs automates work.

2. Paul Romer, “Endogenous Technological Change” (1990) - Foundational paper on how technological progress arises from within the economic system