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Abundant Intelligence and Deficient Demand: A Macro-Financial Stress Test of Rapid AI Adoption

arXiv cs.AI / 3/11/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper develops a macro-financial stress test framework to analyze rapid AI adoption, identifying a mismatch where AI-driven abundance coincides with deficient economic demand due to institutions based on human cognitive constraints.
  • It introduces three core mechanisms: a displacement spiral reducing labor income and demand, 'Ghost GDP' reflecting divergence between GDP and income due to AI output substitution, and intermediation collapse compressing intermediary margins across several sectors.
  • The study highlights the disproportionate impact on top-income earners who heavily influence consumption and face the highest AI exposure, affecting major private credit and mortgage markets.
  • Using calibrated simulations with economic data, the authors map conditions that separate stable adaptation from potential explosive financial crises triggered by AI adoption.
  • Eleven testable predictions with clear falsification conditions are offered to validate the stress test framework and its implications for economy-wide AI transitions.

Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence

arXiv:2603.09209 (cs)
[Submitted on 10 Mar 2026]

Title:Abundant Intelligence and Deficient Demand: A Macro-Financial Stress Test of Rapid AI Adoption

Authors:Xupeng Chen
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Abstract:We formalize a macro-financial stress test for rapid AI adoption. Rather than a productivity bust or existential risk, we identify a distribution-and-contract mismatch: AI-generated abundance coexists with demand deficiency because economic institutions are anchored to human cognitive scarcity. Three mechanisms formalize this channel. First, a displacement spiral with competing reinstatement effects: each firm's rational decision to substitute AI for labor reduces aggregate labor income, which reduces aggregate demand, accelerating further AI adoption. We derive conditions on the AI capability growth rate, diffusion speed, and reinstatement rate under which the net feedback is self-limiting versus explosive. Second, Ghost GDP: when AI-generated output substitutes for labor-generated output, monetary velocity declines monotonically in the labor share absent compensating transfers, creating a wedge between measured output and consumption-relevant income. Third, intermediation collapse: AI agents that reduce information frictions compress intermediary margins toward pure logistics costs, triggering repricing across SaaS, payments, consulting, insurance, and financial advisory.
Because top-quintile earners drive 47--65\% of U.S.\ consumption and face the highest AI exposure, the transmission into private credit (\$2.5 trillion globally) and mortgage markets (\$13 trillion) is disproportionate. We derive eleven testable predictions with explicit falsification conditions. Calibrated simulations disciplined by FRED time series and BLS occupation-level data quantify conditions under which stable adjustment transitions to explosive crisis.
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2603.09209 [cs.AI]
  (or arXiv:2603.09209v1 [cs.AI] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.09209
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arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

Submission history

From: Xupeng Chen [view email]
[v1] Tue, 10 Mar 2026 05:26:57 UTC (200 KB)
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