Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been named a co-lead of the Federal Reserve’s new Productivity and Jobs task force, one of five advisory panels announced by Chair Kevin Warsh as part of a broad overhaul of how the central bank conducts monetary policy.
Sharma will lead the task force alongside venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and Stanford economist Charles I. Jones, who is currently on leave from the AI firm Anthropic. The group is charged with assessing how artificial intelligence and other new general-purpose technologies will affect economic productivity and employment, insights that will inform the Fed’s policy judgments on interest rates and inflation.
Warsh has argued that AI will ultimately prove disinflationary through gains in productivity, making the task force’s work central to the Fed’s economic outlook. The choice to include Andreessen—a Trump ally and aggressive promoter of artificial intelligence whose firm has billions riding on AI valuations—puts a politically connected investor inside the Fed’s advisory apparatus. The other four task forces, focused on communications, the balance sheet, data, and inflation frameworks, generally draw on more conventional Fed-adjacent academics and former central bankers, according to the Washington Post.
Sharma brings deep experience with artificial intelligence and large-scale operations. She became Xbox CEO in February 2026 after serving as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product organization. Before that, she held executive roles at Instacart, where she served as chief operating officer, and at Meta, where she ran product for Facebook Messenger and scaled it to billions of users.
The Fed’s focus on AI’s labor market impact reflects a broader concern among central bankers about how the technology will reshape employment. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook warned in February 2026 that AI could cause “job displacement” while preceding “job creation,” potentially raising unemployment rates as the labor force adjusts. However, other analyses suggest productivity gains from AI could eventually lead to more jobs rather than fewer. Atlanta Federal Reserve research found that while AI may shift tasks across sectors, the near-term impact on overall employment appears modest, though effects could be more substantial in the future.
The task force is expected to develop ideas and recommendations by year-end. Its work comes as the Fed grapples with how artificial intelligence will affect inflation, productivity, and labor dynamics—questions that will shape monetary policy decisions for years to come.
Sources
- The Washington Post — reported Asha Sharma as co-lead of the Productivity and Jobs task force with Marc Andreessen and Charles I. Jones, and context on Warsh’s AI strategy
- American Banker — confirmed the announcement of the five task forces and Asha Sharma’s role
- BeInCrypto — detailed the co-leadership structure of the Productivity and Jobs task force
- Yahoo Finance — reported on the task force leadership and the broader Fed task force announcement
- Axios — covered the announcement of task force leaders and Warsh’s timeline for recommendations
- Bloomberg — reported on Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s warnings about AI-driven job displacement
- Atlanta Federal Reserve — provided research on AI’s impact on the workforce and employment effects
