Nicolai Tangen says AI and robotics may drive productivity gains and deflation within three years

The man who oversees more money than anyone else on the planet thinks AI is about to do something economists have been struggling to achieve for years: bring prices down. Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, told Bloomberg that artificial intelligence and robotics could significantly increase productivity and reduce prices in the coming years. Norway’s trillion-dollar AI experiment Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, the sovereign wealth fund NBIM manages, has already integrated AI across its trading and analysis functions. The result: a roughly 20% productivity increase internally, with no plans to grow headcount. The fund is doing more with the same number of people, and saving hundreds of millions of kroner in operational costs along the way. For Tangen, the internal results are a preview of what he expects to see across the broader economy. His thesis is straightforward: AI and humanoid robotics will eventually produce enough output gains that economic growth outpaces inflation, creating a deflationary environment. He estimates this shift could take roughly three years to materialize, as output needs time to catch up to demand. The deflation argument, ...