Anthropic expands its Economic Futures Programme to the United Kingdom and Europe to help researchers, policymakers and civil society understand how AI adoption will affect employment, productivity and growth in the coming years.
What Anthropic is announcing and why it matters
AI adoption in Europe is accelerating. But are public policies ready to handle its effects on the labour market and the economy? Anthropic bets the answer lies in combining real data, research and public dialogue.
The programme brings three basic pillars to the region: funding for research, discussion forums such as a symposium at the London School of Economics, and more disaggregated data on real AI use across European countries and sectors.
"Europe has an opportunity to develop approaches to AI adoption that boost growth and share the benefits across the labour market" (summary of Anthropic and LSE's position).
What the data show about adoption in the UK and Europe
Anthropic shares findings from the Anthropic Economic Index about how Claude is used in the field. This is not theory: these are concrete examples of use. What stands out?
- At the continental level, the most frequent use is for programming and code.
- In the United Kingdom, support for academic research, writing and educational content prevails. If you work at a university, you might already use these tools for summaries, structure ideas or literature review.
- In Germany there is intensive use in manufacturing: calibration, fault diagnosis and equipment repair. That points to very concrete impacts on production processes.
- In France, Claude is widely used for culture and tourism: information about restaurants, shopping and nightlife, with per-capita use notably higher than the global average.
These patterns suggest AI does not affect all sectors or regions equally. That's why public policy needs local and nuanced data.
The LSE symposium and the practical strategy
The LSE will host an Anthropic Economic Futures Symposium with more than a hundred experts from government, academia and civil society. There will be presentations from researchers selected through open processes by LSE and Anthropic, and debate on evidence-based public policy proposals.
What concrete objectives does the programme have in Europe?
- Research grants: grants and
API creditsfor European researchers studying the effects of AI on labour markets, productivity or value creation. - Evidence-based policy: forums like the symposium to design and evaluate policy proposals with real data.
- Economic measurement and data: expansion of the Anthropic Economic Index to offer more granular data by industry and region, with regular public releases.
If you are a researcher in the United Kingdom or Europe and want to apply, you can find details and submit proposals at https://www.anthropic.com/economic-futures or write to economicfutures@anthropic.com for inquiries.
What comes next and why it should matter to you
The decisions made now about AI development, deployment and governance will shape the region's economic future. It's not just a technologists' issue: it affects company workforces, the design of public policy and people's daily lives.
Anthropic proposes a practical path: public data, funded research and spaces for dialogue so policies align with what is actually happening. Will that be enough? That will depend on the quality of research, political will and local voices taking part in the conversation.
