The International Monetary Fund (IMF) keeps its global growth forecast for this year largely unchanged, attributing the stability in part to a surge in artificial intelligence activity that offsets economic headwinds from the Middle East conflict. According to the IMF’s updated World Economic Outlook, fallout related to the war, including spillovers to energy markets and oil prices, continues to affect parts of the global economy. At the same time, the IMF highlights that the growing momentum behind AI—through investment, productivity expectations, and related economic activity—provides support to growth. The IMF does not significantly revise the overall forecast upward or downward from its prior outlook, suggesting that the positive contribution from AI is viewed as roughly balancing the negative impact from the conflict-related disruption. The assessment is presented in connection with the IMF’s updated report and related commentary from IMF research leadership, including Deputy Director Petya Koeva Brooks. Overall, the IMF’s message is that multiple shocks are moving in opposite directions, leaving the net outlook for global growth broadly steady for the year.