Fed’s Mary Daly says AI is reshaping how policymakers think

The San Francisco Fed president sees AI influencing monetary policy decisions, though she isn't ready to call it an inflation driver yet San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly says artificial intelligence will shape monetary policy decisions in the near and medium term. She is not saying AI is about to set interest rates. She is saying the technology is now part of the backdrop that policymakers have to account for. What Daly has actually said about AI Daly’s thinking on AI has developed across several public appearances. The most detailed came on February 17, 2026, when she spoke at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The speech carried a title that reads like a TED Talk with a policy minor: “The AI Moment? Possibilities, Productivity, and Policy.” Her core point was measured. Macroeconomic studies so far show limited evidence that AI is delivering immediate productivity gains. Still, she said the integration of AI is expected to transform productivity and economic growth over time. Daly also argued that the Fed needs to look past aggregate data to understand what AI might do. She pointed toward disaggregated information as a better way to gauge the technology’s p...