OpenAI is expanding its economic research team to study AI’s impact on jobs, firms, institutions, and the broader economy, led by chief economist Ronnie Chatterji.

The team will explore three core questions: how AI is changing work today, how businesses adopt and reorganize around AI, and what capable AI could mean for the economy tomorrow.

Roles on the team require a rapidly evolving job description that blends rigorous economic thinking with comfort navigating ambiguity and shifting priorities.

Collaboration is essential, with frequent engagement with governments, universities, and external partners, since no single entity has all the tools to answer these questions.

Researchers must tackle problems without straightforward answers, maintaining comfort with uncertainty.

Context on the reporting frame focuses on international and geopolitical developments and their effects on markets, including India.

The article notes a lack of fixed actionable dates, referencing events in 2024 and framing AI development on a broad timeline around the publication date.

Chatterji emphasizes adaptability due to rapid AI evolution, noting that topics once off the agenda can become crucial quickly, such as recursive self-improvement in AI.

Candidates should be comfortable with open-ended questions, ready to adapt as research topics shift, and able to pursue meaningful questions independently.

They must combine rigorous economic thinking with adaptability, identifying key problems that could benefit from the team’s research.

Candidates should handle uncertainty and ambiguity while maintaining disciplined economic analysis and proactive problem identification.

Collaboration is a core requirement, with work spanning OpenAI, governments, and universities, and researchers should proactively identify important problems rather than follow a fixed agenda.