Anthropic Economic Index: Tracking AI’s role in the US and global economy

Source: Anthropic Research Date: 2025-09-15 URL: https://www.anthropic.com/research/economic-index-geography

Summary

Economic Index September 2025 geography report: ~1M conversations classified via O*NET across three reporting periods (Dec 2024–Aug 2025). Claude use correlates with GDP per capita at 0.7% per country, 1.8% within US states. Directive automation rose from 27% to 39% since December. API at 77% automation vs. 50% for Claude.ai. Counter-intuitively, higher-adoption countries show less automation and more collaborative use.

Implications

The directive automation rise from 27% to 39% in nine months is the trend line to watch — it suggests users are increasingly trusting AI to work independently, not just assist. The counter-intuitive “high adoption = more collaboration” finding challenges the “automation first adopters” narrative: sophisticated users may know when to direct vs. collaborate. The 0.7% per-country vs. 1.8% within US states GDP correlation shows the effect is stronger at finer geographic granularity — within-country economic inequality drives adoption patterns more than cross-country differences. This is the September 2025 geographic report; the companion “Uneven geographic and enterprise” report filed under the same date covers enterprise vs. consumer splits.