Divergent

In a relatively short period of time, the market has shifted from being concerned that artificial intelligence was over-hyped, to fearing the technology was so capable that it could automate wide swaths of economic activity. In recent weeks shares of financial services, commercial real estate brokers, freight logistics operators, and even data providers have fallen sharply as concerns spread that AI would disrupt rather than augment those industries. However, at the macro level economists so far appear more sanguine. A recent poll conducted by the University of Chicago’s Clark Center for Global Markets found that nearly 60% of economists say that the likely impact of AI on the neutral real interest rate will be negligible.

Source: Clark Center for Global Markets, February 2026