The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and industry leaders have called for responsible artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, stronger safety standards and increased investment in workforce training to ensure the technology benefits businesses, workers and economies worldwide.
The call was made during a panel discussion titled “AI and the Global Economy: From Risk to Opportunity” at the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok on Friday, October 16, 2026. The speakers said AI was transforming the global economy but warned that its benefits would depend on how governments and businesses managed the risks, protected workers and prepared employees for changing job requirements.
IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, described AI as a fast-moving and transformative technology capable of boosting economic growth, particularly in countries well integrated into the global digital ecosystem.
However, Georgieva warned that the technology could disrupt labour markets and pose risks to financial stability if appropriate safeguards were not established.
She stressed the need for an ethical foundation and effective guardrails to guide AI development and deployment, noting that global efforts to address the associated risks were not progressing quickly enough.
The IMF managing director called for stronger international coordination to ensure that AI was developed and deployed responsibly.
DHL Group Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tobias Meyer, who offered a business perspective on AI adoption, said the technology was increasingly important to global trade and supply chain efficiency.
Meyer, however, cautioned companies against excessive spending on information technology projects without clearly defined business objectives.
According to him, businesses should identify specific, high-volume processes where AI systems, particularly agentic AI capable of carrying out tasks with limited human intervention, could deliver measurable operational improvements.
Meyer said the logistics industry required more than advanced reasoning capabilities, stressing the importance of physical connectivity, operational context and an understanding of real-world processes.
He maintained that AI investments should be driven by practical business needs rather than the pursuit of technology for its own sake.
Anthropic Co-Founder and Head of Policy, Jack Clark, emphasised the concept of creative destruction, explaining that organisations would need to rethink and rebuild their operations to take full advantage of emerging AI capabilities.
Anthropic is an AI and safety research company known for developing the Claude AI assistant.
Clark advocated common international safety standards to guide AI development, comparing the need for such safeguards with established testing requirements for children’s toys.
He urged AI companies to share employment-related data to help policymakers understand the technology’s impact on jobs and develop appropriate responses.
Clark said access to reliable information about changing employment patterns would be important in shaping policies to manage the transition.
Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, said AI was already contributing to investment and gross domestic product (GDP) growth but noted that its broader economic value would depend on how widely the technology was adopted across industries.
Macklem explained that widespread adoption of AI could generate greater productivity gains and extend its benefits beyond technology-focused companies.
He acknowledged that technological advances had historically created more jobs than they destroyed but stressed that the transition could still impose significant costs on workers and communities.
Macklem called on governments and businesses to invest proactively in training and skills development to help workers adapt to changing job requirements.
He also warned that failure to manage the transition effectively could fuel public dissatisfaction and populist sentiment.
Ayesha Khanna, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Addo, a global AI solutions company, highlighted the difficulties many organisations faced in moving beyond individual productivity improvements to achieve broader operational transformation through AI.
Khanna noted that tools such as AI copilots could help employees perform tasks more efficiently but argued that businesses needed to redesign their operations to achieve more substantial productivity gains.
She called on governments to take proactive and measurable steps to support AI adoption while protecting workers from the disruption associated with technological change.
Khanna cited Singapore’s approach to supporting training and business transformation as an example of how public policy could help companies and employees adapt to emerging technologies.
She said governments should consider targeted subsidies for training and other support measures to help workers acquire relevant skills and enable businesses to integrate AI into their operations.
The panel discussion highlighted the importance of balancing AI-driven economic growth with employment protection, responsible innovation and financial stability.
The speakers stressed that technological advancement alone would not guarantee widespread prosperity, noting that coordinated policies, business investment and continuous workforce development would be necessary to ensure that AI’s economic benefits were broadly shared while addressing the risks associated with its rapid development.
