A New York City official warned this week that those working in the Big Apple could face the brunt of the negative impacts of artificial intelligence, possibly costing the city thousands of jobs.

Comptroller Mark Levine laid out scenarios the city will face tied to future impacts of AI on the economy and job market in a new report shared by his office on Thursday

“Despite the impossibly high stakes for us as we stare down the radical transformation ahead, New York City — economic and cultural colossus — is doing almost nothing to prepare,” Levine wrote. “We are sleepwalking into the age of AI.“

In the best-case scenario, the stock market could surge by 9 percent, and the number of office job openings could increase by 1 percent annually between 2025 and 2030. On the most dire and unlikely end, this new tech boom could cost the private sector a loss of around 110,000 jobs in 2027, according to the report.

The comptroller also found that the most likely outcome was a scenario in which AI creates moderate job and economic growth, with jobs in the private sector growing by 52,000 per year between 2025 and 2030. In the second most likely outcome, the emerging technology would “fall flat” and the private sector would shrink by 52,500 jobs within a year.

The report’s findings are based on data from Moody’s Analytics, a rating agency, which looked broadly at the impacts of AI on the U.S. economy and jobs.

Levine cited the city’s strong economic ties to industries that are adopting this new technology and a tax base reliance on office and finance jobs.

“There is no city in America — and perhaps none on earth — more exposed to both the promise and peril of artificial intelligence than New York City,” the comptroller wrote. “And there are few places with more power to steer the transformation ahead.”

He added that an “immediate priority” should be increasing the city’s rainy day fund to a recommended 16 percent of annual tax revenue. Additionally, Levine urged reform for the pension system and safeguarding public infrastructure against “AI-powered threats.”

“If predicting the impact of transformative AI is hard, designing the policies needed to respond is harder still,” Levine continued. “But we cannot let uncertainty paralyze us.”

“We have to begin the work now—and in the months ahead, my office intends to lay out a broad agenda to help City government meet the challenges ahead,” the official wrote.

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