Federal Reserve Governor Christopher J. Waller stated on October 1, 2026 that AI agents and bots now account for approximately 50% of all traffic on FRED, the economic data platform run by the St. Louis Fed. The platform has seen annual traffic growth of approximately 150%, with over 850,000 economic time series available. The St. Louis Fed launched the FRED MCP Connector using the Model Context Protocol to allow AI agents to query data in natural language. However, Waller flagged risks: AI agents may misattribute sources and make interpretive errors, such as confusing correlation with causation. The Fed is adapting its strategy by adjusting data presentation and integrating archival tools like FRASER and ALFRED.
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