[edoceo]

> measurable productivity

Which measure? Like when folk say something is more "efficient" it's more time-efficient to fly but one trades other efficiency. Efficiency, like productivity needs a second word with it to properly communicate.

Whtys more productive? Lines of code (a weak measure). Features shipped? Bugs fixed? Time by company saved? Time for client? Shareholders value (lame).

I don't know the answer but this year (2026) I'm gonna see if LLM is better at tax prep than my 10yr CPA. So that test is my time vs $6k USD.

[bluGill]

Time could be very expensive as mistakes on taxes can be fraud resulting in prison time. Mostly they understand people make mistakes - but they need to look like honest mistakes and llm may not. remember you sign your taxes as correct to the best of your knowledge - your CPA is admitting you outsourced understanding to an expert, something they accept. However if you sign alone you are saying you understand it all even if you don't.

[ineedasername]

These days productivity at a macroeconomic scale is usually cited in something like GDP per hour worked.

Most recent BLS for the last quarter ‘25 was an annualized rate of 5.4%.

The historic annual average is around 2%.

It’s a bit early to draw a conclusion from this. Also it’s not an absolute measure. GDP per hour worked. So, to cut through any proxy factors or intermediating signals you’d really need to know how many hours were worked, which I don’t have to hand.

That said, in general macro sense, assuming hours worked does not decrease, productivity +% and gdp +% are two of the fundamental factors required for real world wage gains.

If you’re looking for signals in either direction on AI’s influence on the economy, these are #s to watch, among others. The Federal Reserve, the the Chair reports after each meeting, is (IMO) one of the most convenient places to get very fresh hard #s combined with cogent analysis and usually some q&a from the business press asking questions that are at least some of the ones I’d want to ask.

If you follow these fairly accessible speeches after meetings, you’ll occasionally see how lots of the things in them end up being thematic in lots of the stories that pop up here weeks or months later.

[_delirium]

Economy-wide productivity can be measured reasonably well, although there are a few different measures [1]. The big question I guess is whether AI will make a measurable impact there. Historically tech has had less impact than people thought it would, as noted in Robert Solow's classic quip that "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics". [2]

[1] https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/measuring-producti...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox

[Bombthecat]

Try agent zero, you can then upload your bank ( or credit card) statements in CSV etc. It then can analyse it

[another_twist]

Number of features shipped. Traction metrics. Revenue per product. Ultimately business metrics. For example, tax prep effectiveness would be a proper experiment tied to specific metrics.

[belter]

I used to write bugs in 8 hours. Now I write the same bugs in 4. My Productivity doubled. \s

[Morromist]

I hear this every day, and I'm sure its true sometimes, but where is the tsunami of amazing software LLM users are producing? Where are the games that make the old games look like things from a bygone era? Where are the updates to the software that I currently use that greatly increase it capabilities? I have seen none of this.

I get that it takes a long time to make software, but people were making big promises a year ago and I think its time to start expecting some results.

[SoftTalker]

Even better, I write more bugs in 4 hours than I used to in 8.