David A. Steinberg, CEO of Zeta Global Holdings, at the New York Stock Exchange.
Source: NYSE
Measuring the strength of the expanding US economy is no easy task, so one firm is sending artificial intelligence to do the job.
The Zeta Economic Index, which launched Monday, uses generative AI to analyze what its developers call “trillions of behavioral signals,” mostly focused on consumer activity, to provide broad health insights. Growth can be achieved both on level and a separate measure on stability.
At its core, the index will assess online and offline activity across eight categories, aiming to provide a comprehensive look at standard economic data points such as unemployment and retail sales as high-frequency information for the AI age. Added with
“The algorithm is looking at traditional economic indicators that you normally see. But then within our proprietary algorithm, we're digesting behavioral data and transactional data from 240 million Americans, which no one else has. is,” said David Steinberg, co. – Founder, Chairman and CEO of Zeta Global.
“So instead of looking at the data in the rearview mirror like everybody else, we're trying to project it in advance to give a 30-day advance snapshot of where the economy is going,” he added. “
The eight verticals the economic index uses include automotive activity, dining and entertainment, financial services such as credit line extensions, health care, retail sales, technology and travel.
To measure stability, the index will measure consumers' ability to handle an acceleration in the economy.
Taken together, the goal is to provide a much broader measure of gross domestic product and growth than similar measures.
In June, there was good news on both measures, with an economic score of 66 and a stability index of 66.1. Respectively, the two readings correspond to “active” and “stable” regarding the health of the economy.
“It's really a more comprehensive way of forecasting the economy because you're not only taking current economic indicators around GDP, employment, all the different reporting that comes down to different vertical sales, you're layering on top of that. are,” Steinberg said.
“We're really looking at what they're actually spending. We're looking at what they're actually reading and researching,” he added. “We're looking at all that information, which allows us to make better predictions.”