Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has named the leaders of five task forces that will review major areas of US monetary policy and central bank operations. The panels will study Fed communications, the inflation framework, the balance sheet, economic data, and new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
The announcement puts AI near the center of Warsh’s early agenda as chairman. Several members chosen for the technology panel have publicly argued that AI could lift productivity and alter the path of US growth.
Warsh said the task forces will receive support from Federal Reserve staff but work independently. Their mandate is to review evidence, give direct feedback, and produce findings for the Federal Open Market Committee by the end of the year.
"The goal is straightforward: to ensure the Fed is best positioned to achieve our objectives in this consequential time," Warsh said in a statement. He first announced the project in June, during his first press conference as Fed chairman.
One task force will review how the central bank explains decisions in uncertain periods. Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King will help lead that group. Another panel will study the Fed’s balance sheet and its role inside the institution.
Raghuram Rajan, former head of India’s central bank, and Harvard professor Jeremy Stein will lead the balance-sheet work. The review also includes the Fed’s inflation framework and the quality of data used in policy decisions.
The AI task force will assess how new general-purpose technologies may shape productivity, jobs, and growth. Warsh selected Marc Andreessen, Charles I. Jones, and Asha Sharma to lead the panel.
Andreessen is co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and a vocal AI supporter. Jones is a Stanford University economics professor on leave at the Anthropic Institute. Sharma is Microsoft’s executive vice president and Xbox CEO.
All three have recently made remarks or written work that presents AI as a major economic force. That lines up with Warsh’s view that AI could help the economy grow faster without adding price pressure.
Warsh said in June that AI may be ‘perhaps as important a change in the economy and business and households’ as any shift in his adult life. In 2025, he also said AI-led productivity gains could support rate cuts if they prove lasting.
The AI panel arrives as Fed officials debate how quickly the technology can raise productivity. Minutes from the June FOMC meeting show that some participants saw room for faster productivity growth.
Yet the same discussion showed caution. Participants said ‘considerable uncertainty remained’ over the timing and scale of future productivity gains. They also expected those gains to trail the current demand boost tied to AI adoption.
New York Fed President John Williams also raised concerns this week. He said AI-linked demand has pushed up prices for electricity and semiconductors. Some components have doubled or tripled, he said, describing the price path as a ‘hockey stick.’
Williams said AI represents a demand shock. He added that supply must expand fast enough to keep price pressure under control. Without that balance, the Fed may need to treat AI as an inflation issue.
Meanwhile, former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will help lead the group reviewing the quality and speed of economic data used in Fed decisions. This panel comes as job-market data faces added scrutiny.
Revisions to payroll figures and lower survey response rates have raised questions about how real-time data informs policy judgments. The task forces are expected to finish work by the end of 2026, while the Fed’s next policy meeting is set for late July.
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