Is AI a general-purpose technology?

General-purpose technologies lead to new methods of production and innovation, transform industries and create new markets over decades. Such technologies are characterized by: 

• Pervasiveness – They offer applications across various industries and economic activities. 

• Dynamicity – They offer room for continuous technical improvements that create new opportunities for applications.

 • Innovational complementarities – They enable innovations in application sectors and new complementary technologies developed around them. 

AI is considered a general-purpose technology because it can impact a wide range of tasks and jobs. AI is continuously evolving, with growing functionality, and may affect around half of human jobs in the future. Moreover, AI is already transforming the way research and innovation are conducted. While it can speed up processes, it is unclear whether the use of AI can help address the increasing difficulties in discovering new ideas and the decreasing rate of the emergence of disruptive ideas. In any case, as with previous general-purpose technologies, it will take time and effort for the full potential of AI to be realized. For example, the introduction of electric motors in manufacturing initially boosted productivity by reducing energy costs, but the most significant impacts did not emerge until companies began to redesign factories and business processes to take advantage of the flexibilities offered by the new source of energy. Rather than being final solutions, general-purpose technologies open up new opportunities and feedback loops throughout the economy. However, the complementary productive and innovative activities are usually widely dispersed, making it difficult to coordinate efforts and provide incentives within both the technology and the application sectors.