A Goldman Economist Says AI Will Take 15 Years to Show Up in the Economy. A 63-Year-Old Banking His Nest Egg on the AI Boom Should Listen.

Picture a 63-year-old sitting at the kitchen table with his 401(k) statement. He is two years from Medicare, maybe four from claiming Social Security, and his retirement math looks great. The S&P 500 is up about 20% over the past year and roughly 72% over five years. If that pace continues at even half speed, with AI powering the markets, he retires comfortably.

That if is doing a lot of work. A Goldman Sachs economist offered a reality check on AI adoption: it took roughly 15 years for computers to meaningfully show up in the economic data, and current AI rollout is gradual and uneven despite the hype about replacing white-collar work. The productivity payoff may still arrive. It may not arrive on his retirement timeline.

The current data supports the caution. Goldman’s own research found no meaningful relationship between AI adoption and productivity at the economy-wide level, and fewer than 20% of U.S. businesses are using AI for any function at all. Nothing in the economic numbers screams productivity revolution. Versions of this exact worry appear on retirement forums lately, with near-retirees asking whether to keep riding the tech rally or lock in what they have.

Why Delayed Retirement Credits Are the Anchor Here

The single Social Security lever that matters most for this man is when he claims. His full retirement age (FRA) is 67. Claiming at 62 chops his benefit by roughly 30% for life. Waiting past FRA adds about 8% per year until age 70, and every future cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), 2.8% for 2026, compounds on that larger base. The mechanics live on the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) site.

If his full retirement benefit is $2,400 a month, claiming at age 62 gets him about $1,680. Waiting to 70 gets him roughly $2,976. That gap is close to $1,300 a month, or about $15,000 a year, for the rest of his life, indexed to inflation. Over a 20-year retirement the larger check is worth well into six figures before you even count COLAs.

Here is the reframe that helps most: a bigger Social Security check is longevity insurance and market insurance. It pays the same whether the AI thesis compounds or fizzles. For readers who want a deeper walk-through of the tradeoffs, our team put together The Social Security Decision report specifically for this question.

Sequence-of-Returns Risk Is the Hidden Enemy

The other piece is timing. When you retire and start pulling from a portfolio, a bad market in the first few years does permanent damage, because every dollar withdrawn during a slump cannot participate in the recovery. That is sequence-of-returns risk, and it is why the same average return can produce very different outcomes depending on the order the returns arrive.

This is exactly the risk an AI-driven market carries for someone his age. The VIX spiked to almost 31 in late March 2026, when oil above $100 a barrel and geopolitical shocks rattled the same tech-heavy market now leaning on AI to keep climbing. Consumer sentiment sits near 45, close to recessionary levels. A concentrated rally has a way of unwinding. A retiree who started drawing in early 2026 with a stock-heavy 401(k) already tasted what a bad sequence feels like, and there is no reason to assume the next scare, AI-related or otherwise, will spare him.

The fix is safe and effective: hold one to three years of expenses in cash and short bonds so you never have to sell equities into a slump. A guaranteed Social Security floor makes that easier because it covers a chunk of essential spending automatically.

What to Actually Do Before Claiming

Two moves protect the plan regardless of how the AI story plays out.

1. Model conservative returns, not recent ones. If your plan only works assuming AI-boom gains keep compounding, it is not a plan. Rerun it at 4% or 5% real and see if it still holds up.
2. Treat delaying Social Security as insurance, not a math puzzle. The break-even calculation misses the point. A larger COLA-adjusted check hedges both a long life and a disappointing decade of returns, and it lets the rest of the portfolio take appropriate risk rather than reaching for it.

AI may still deliver everything the bulls promise. The mistake worth avoiding is pinning the retirement date to its schedule. Every situation carries its own variables: taxes, health, a spouse’s earnings history, part-time work plans. Pressure-test your own numbers before you commit to a claiming age you cannot easily undo.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.