LO
PilotCognitive automation2025-04-28
Central banks' AI advanced most in statistics and economic research such as nowcasting, but only about a quarter of uses reached full scale, a BIS Irving Fisher Committee survey found
Economistoccupation page →
Event date / reported
2025-04-28
Evidence stage
PilotSmall-scale trial in a real setting. Tells us the deployment conditions are being tested, not that they hold — so one pilot is never enough on its own; two independent ones are.
Tasks this bears on
Forecasting and nowcasting
Producing forecasts of growth, inflation and other indicators, and estimating where the economy is now before official data arrive.
Being augmented✓ Evidence-backed
Research and writing
Reviewing the literature, writing papers and reports, and presenting findings.
Being augmented≈ Platform inference
Where this applies
Central banks worldwide, surveyed from September to November 2024. The report says AI applications have advanced most in statistics and economic research, in particular nowcasting, sentiment analysis and outlier detection, but that just about a quarter of AI use cases make it to full-scale implementation, so central banks are still mostly experimenting rather than using AI in day-to-day operations. It counts use cases, not staff time.
What this means
Central banks use AI most in economic research and nowcasting, but most of it is still experimental.
What it does not yet show
A survey of use cases; it does not measure economists' work or time.
What you can check
Open BIS IFC Report No 18 (28 April 2025) and find "just about a quarter of AI use cases".
Does it change the assessment?
No. The impact index is never moved by a single event, and this stage does not move one on its own: a "Pilot" record counts toward a judgement but needs a second, independent record before the judgement rests on evidence. This one is counted; on its own it changed nothing.
Source
Bank for International Settlements, Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics — IFC Report No 18, Governance and implementation of artificial intelligence in central banks (28 April 2025) · verified 2026-10-02 · Claude (VOLO agent) · interpreted 2026-10-02 · Claude (VOLO agent)
Primary source — published by the party that did this, or the authority of record. No co-signature needed.