The AI wave boosts US productivity to its strongest growth in two years! The layout of intelligent entities is still in the early stages, and the bull market of AI application leaders is far from over.

The latest economic data shows that US labor productivity continued to rise in the first quarter, although the growth rate slowed slightly. However, this trend of growth indicates that businesses are gradually improving employee efficiency by leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to alleviate the pressure of higher energy costs resulting from Middle East geopolitical conflicts. Recent productivity data reports are proving that companies are viewing cutting-edge AI technologies such as AI agents in agent-based workflows as "cost-effective capital expenditures" and strengthening the belief that "enterprise AI investment is still in its early stages, and AI application demand is still on a long and steep slope," also supporting the continuous soaring valuation of Anthropic/OpenAI and the long-term bull market trajectory of cloud computing super giants such as Microsoft and Google. Data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday showed that productivity indicatorsi.e., non-farm employees' output per hourincreased at an annual rate of 0.8% in the first quarter, after growth was revised downward to 1.6% in the fourth quarter. The more impactful data is that productivity has significantly increased by 2.9% compared to a year ago, marking the largest annual increase since 2024 and highlighting the strong productivity expansion brought about by investments in AI agents. The overall trend of improved labor productivity in recent times helps ensure that wage pressures no longer serve as the primary source of inflationary pressures, confirming the latest views of Federal Reserve officials. Companies have increased their spending on new technologies such as artificial intelligence in recent years to help alleviate the pressures brought about by rising costs, such as those related to tariffs or the Iran war. From another perspective, US labor productivity saw a slight cooling compared to the previous quarter due to increased working hours, but the growth rate of unit labor costs was significantly lower than in the previous quarter. Labor costs have been the largest expense for many companies long-term, prompting companies to increasingly invest in cutting-edge AI technologies and emerging intelligent devices such as Siasun Robot & Automation to make employee productivity more efficient. Improved productivity helps companies ease the rising prices for American consumers who are facing increasing financial pressures. Another economic data report released on Thursday showed that unit labor costsi.e., the costs companies pay to employees to produce one unit of outputincreased by 2.3% on an annualized basis compared to the previous quarter. Hours worked in the first quarter increased by 0.7%, following a decline of 0.2% in the previous quarter. Non-inflation-adjusted hourly wages saw an annualized growth of 3.1%. However, after adjusting for inflation, workers' wages saw a slight decrease at the beginning of the year. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that workers' share of output received in the form of wages in the first quarter was only 54.1%, the lowest recorded value since the series began in 1947. The report also showed that manufacturing productivity recorded its largest increase in a year in the first quarter, significantly rebounding from the end of the year. The productivity data reinforces the logic of AI investments: companies are ramping up AI agents, and the bull market for AI applications is far from over US economic growth accelerated at the beginning of the year, with the historically long federal government shutdown restricting growth in the last few months of 2025. Recent business investments in AI-related infrastructure have driven a significant increase in commercial investment in the US. Economists generally expect that as companies continue to expand their investment in artificial intelligence technology, the trend of improving labor productivity this year will continue. With some uncertainties around tariffs and trade policy fading and more favorable corporate tax provisions potentially encouraging larger-scale AI investments. The detailed productivity report also shows that non-farm business output in the first quarterexcluding government expendituresincreased substantially by an annual rate of 1.5%, slightly stronger than at the end of 2025. BLS data shows that US non-farm productivity increased by 0.8% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, up by 2.9% compared to a year ago, and unit labor costs increased by only 2.3% on an annualized basis, further supporting economists' expectations of continued efficiency improvements driven by AI investments. These all actively demonstrate that companies are indeed more willing to increase per capita productivity through AI, automation, and software tools to deal with energy, tariff, and wage pressures, rather than simply expand their workforce. The urgent need for companies to enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs has seen a significant push for two core categories of AI applicationsthe generative AI applications and AI agents. Among them, AI agents (or AI agents) that autonomously perform various tedious and complex tasks are likely to be the ultimate trend in AI applications over the next decade. The emergence of AI agents signifies that artificial intelligence is evolving from an informational tool into a highly intelligent productivity tool, which is why the valuation of Anthropic has surpassed 1 trillion US dollars and surpassed OpenAI. The latest research by MarketsandMarkets shows that the AI agent market is expected to reach as high as $53 billion by 2030, indicating a high compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of up to 46% starting from 2025. The explosive growth of AI agents like Anthropic's Claude Cowork and OpenClaw in 2026 is not coincidental, but essentially marks the first time the five curves of "model synthesis capabilities, tool protocols, AI developer frameworks, reasoning costs, and terminal context capabilities" have converged. In the AI application layer, AI agents are likely to become the dominant business interface because they directly translate "intelligence" into "action," signaling the evolution of AI from "answering queries" to "executing, collaborating, and completing highly complex multistep tasks." Undoubtedly, the logic of "AI disrupts everything" is beginning to ignite a comprehensive new revolution in enterprise efficiency. For example, companies like Block led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey have announced massive layoffs of over 4,000 employees, nearly half of the company's total workforce. North American internet giants like Meta (Facebook's parent company) and Snap, the parent company of the "read and burn" app, have also announced large-scale layoffs. Block's public statements indicate that agent-based AI tools in the form of AI agents enable leaner teams to maintain higher operational efficiency in the long run. Subsequently, the company's CFO further stated that the adoption of agent-based workflows focusing on AI agents has significantly improved operational efficiency, resulting in deep layoffs that are almost "inevitable" for any company. From the perspective of AI engineering and enterprise IT, the logic of the transmission chain for the long-term bull market trajectory of leaders in AI applications such as Microsoft, Google, and Oracle is continuously strengtheningcompanies seek to improve productivity, leading to increased deployment of AI tools, automation, and intelligent agents, ultimately driving up demand for cloud AI computational resources, model APIs, enterprise AI application suites, code intelligence agents, and office copilots. Therefore, the latest enterprise productivity data reinforces the belief that "enterprise AI investment is still in its early stages, and AI application demand is still on a long and steep slope." This provides long-term demand support for OpenAI, Anthropic, as well as cloud and software giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Oracle. Particularly, as Anthropic accelerates the deployment of AI agents in enterprise and financial scenarios, its first-quarter annualized revenue skyrocketed by "80 times" and launched AI agents for industries such as banking and insurance. Google has also placed AI agents at the core of its monetization strategy and maintained a capital expenditure plan of $175-$185 billion this year, with slightly over half of the massive AI computational investments earmarked for its cloud computing business. Expectation for a soft landing further strengthened Another statistical data released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. on Thursday morning showed that during the first four months of 2026, the total number of layoff announcements in the US private sector decreased by about 10% compared to the same period last year. The US government is expected to release its monthly employment report on Friday, which is projected to show steady job growth in April, accelerating wage growth, and a stable unemployment rate following a strong rebound in job growth in the previous month. Another government report released on Thursday showed that initial claims for unemployment benefits remained low last week, indicating limited layoffs in the broader US economy. The ADP employment data report released on Wednesday, known as the "mini nonfarm," showed that US companies added jobs in April on the largest scale in over a year, providing the latest substantial evidence that the US labor market is stabilizing. Data released by the ADP Research Institute on Wednesday showed that private sector employment in the US increased by 109,000 people in April, marking the strongest performance since the beginning of 2025 and an increase of 61,000 people after revisions from the previous month. The improving trend of ADP employment driven by substantial AI investments significantly reinforces economists' positive expectations for the perfect realization of a soft landing for the US economy. However, it also weakens the dovish logic of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year. With no significant deterioration in employment data, stable consumer spending, and the resurgence of inflation driven by energy and tariffs, the Federal Reserve is more likely to maintain a cautious stance of "higher rates for longer." The latest economic data all indicate that businesses in the US have not significantly halted hiring amid high oil prices, tariffs, and geopolitical conflicts. Additionally, the US real GDP saw an annualized quarterly growth rate of 2.0% in the first quarter, lower than expected but significantly rebounding from the 0.5% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, with AI-related capital expenditures, government spending recovery, and core private demand continuing to provide support. In other words, the US economy has not experienced a typical cliff-like drop in employment before a recession but is showing typical characteristics of a soft landing with "slowing growth but still resilient," seemingly on the brink of the hoped-for soft landing trajectory envisioned by Federal Reserve officials.