Ethan Crossfield 
If you follow how new technology reshapes economies, this is a notable cross-over: U.S. Federal Reserve leadership has added Xbox CEO Asha Sharma to an advisor team focused on productivity and jobs. Here’s what the Fed is doing, why Sharma was chosen, and what it could mean for how policymakers evaluate AI-driven change.
What the Federal Reserve announced (and what each task force is for)
The U.S. Federal Reserve has launched new task forces to support advances in monetary policy. The effort is led by Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, and each task force is backed by external advisors drawn from different disciplines. In a press release, Warsh emphasized the Fed’s ongoing commitment to price stability and maximum employment, and said the economy has changed significantly in recent decades—especially right now.
The Fed’s five task forces are Communications, Balance Sheet Policy, Data, Productivity and Jobs, and Inflation Frameworks. While the tasks are distinct, the shared aim is to evaluate whether policymakers’ tools, methods, and approaches can be improved to help the institution meet its objectives during a consequential period.
Who is Asha Sharma, and what role does she play on the Productivity and Jobs team?
Asha Sharma—currently CEO of Xbox—has been named one of three advisors to the Productivity and Jobs task force. The team’s mission is to assess the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, explicitly including artificial intelligence, so the Fed can factor those effects into policy judgments.
Sharma’s appointment is tied to her background in AI work: prior to becoming Xbox CEO, she served as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI. The source also notes an interesting detail about the broader advisor list—Sharma is the only active CEO among the advisors, with the rest largely drawn from professors and former business leaders or politicians.
What comes next for Xbox and for the Fed’s policy planning
This Fed announcement lands as Sharma is also in the middle of major changes at Xbox. Sharma was appointed Xbox CEO in February after the departures of former Xbox leaders Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond. Since taking the role, Xbox has been rolling out a restructuring effort that began this week, with the company planning layoffs across each game division totaling over 3,000 positions.
The company has also divested from five development studios: Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, and Arkane Studios.
On the Fed side, the task forces are designed to sharpen how the central bank performs—by reviewing analytical tools and policy approaches. For readers, the immediate takeaway is that the Fed is explicitly building evaluation capacity around the economic effects of general-purpose technologies like AI, and it has brought in a current industry executive with direct AI leadership experience.
What players should know
- Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, is serving as a Fed advisor for the Productivity and Jobs task force.
- The task force is focused on assessing the economic effects of general-purpose technologies, including AI, to inform policy judgments.
- Sharma’s AI background includes leading Microsoft’s CoreAI before her Xbox CEO role.
- Her appointment comes while Xbox is undergoing a major restructuring, including over 3,000 layoffs and the sale of five studios.
Expert View
This is a rare but logical move: the Fed is treating AI and other general-purpose technologies as macroeconomic variables worth systematic review, and Sharma’s profile bridges AI leadership with a real-time view of how tech adoption affects labor and production. For gamers, it won’t change patch notes or release dates tomorrow—but it does signal that policymakers are actively trying to quantify technology-driven shifts that can ripple into jobs and productivity across industries.
