OpenAI Chief Economist Ronnie Chatterji has outlined the skills and qualities he looks for when building the company’s economic research team, highlighting adaptability, analytical rigour, collaboration and independent thinking as artificial intelligence rapidly changes the nature of economic research.
Chatterji leads OpenAI’s Economic Research team, which studies how AI is affecting workers, businesses, institutions and the wider economy. Its work focuses on questions including how AI is changing jobs today, how companies are adapting to the technology and what increasingly capable AI systems could mean for economies over the longer term.
Rather than looking for candidates from a single professional background, Chatterji said the team combines different forms of expertise. It includes economists, data scientists and professionals with business experience, reflecting the range of disciplines required to understand AI’s economic impact.
One of the qualities Chatterji emphasised is adaptability. AI capabilities are developing quickly, meaning research priorities can change as new technologies and use cases emerge. Researchers therefore need to be comfortable adjusting their focus while maintaining rigorous economic thinking.
OpenAI’s current recruitment requirements provide a more detailed picture of the technical skills involved. An Economist role on its Economic Research team seeks candidates with a PhD in economics or a related quantitative field, alongside experience in econometrics, applied microeconomics and working with large or complex datasets. Proficiency in SQL and statistical programming tools such as Python or R is also listed.
The company is particularly interested in research covering the economic measurement of AI, labour-market changes and the macroeconomic implications of the technology. Candidates may work with causal inference, structural modelling and machine learning methods to analyse how AI adoption is influencing productivity, employment, wages and firm behaviour.
Chatterji has also stressed collaboration and independent thinking. Researchers need to work across disciplines while being able to identify important questions independently, particularly as the economic implications of AI extend across workplaces, businesses and public policy.
The focus comes as OpenAI expands research into AI’s impact on employment. Earlier this year, its Economic Research team published an AI Jobs Transition Framework covering more than 900 occupations representing 99.7% of US employment. The framework examines factors including technical AI capability, where human involvement remains necessary, changes in demand and observed ChatGPT usage.
Chatterji became OpenAI’s first Chief Economist in 2024. His remit includes studying AI’s effects on economic growth, job creation, infrastructure and longer-term labour-market trends.
As AI capabilities continue to develop, OpenAI’s approach suggests that researching their economic impact increasingly requires a combination of traditional economic expertise, technical data skills and the ability to adapt to a fast-changing technology landscape.
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