Google broadens its economic research effort

Google is expanding its AI & Economy Research Program as artificial intelligence adoption continues to influence jobs, businesses and everyday activities. The company says the program will bring together economists, academic advisors, visiting scholars and internal researchers to improve understanding of AI’s effects on economic activity around the world.

The expanded effort follows the launch of AI & Economy ATLAS v1.0, which Google describes as an interactive, open-access resource for examining how people use its AI tools at work and in daily life. Google says adoption data is only an initial step, and that understanding the broader transition requires detailed data combined with economic research.

The program will study several connected areas, including the future of work, productivity and growth, global technology diffusion, and AI’s influence on scientific discovery. Google says the research is intended to help organizations, workers, researchers and policymakers interpret the changes associated with the technology.

Nobel Laureate joins academic advisors

Philippe Aghion, a 2025 Nobel Laureate in Economics and the Kurt Björklund Chaired Professor at INSEAD and the Collège de France, is joining Google as an Academic Advisor. He will work alongside Nobel Laureate Michael Spence and Cambridge’s Dame Diane Coyle in the program’s advisory group.

Google says Aghion will apply his research on innovation-led growth and creative destruction to the study of AI’s long-term macroeconomic trajectory. His addition is intended to strengthen the program’s ability to connect developments in artificial intelligence with wider questions about growth, innovation and economic change.

The company presents the advisory group as part of a broader effort to deepen collaboration among academia, industry leaders and policymakers. Google says this cooperation is necessary for a research agenda that spans technology adoption, labor markets and the evolving organization of economic activity.

Ajay Agrawal to focus on AI and discovery

Ajay Agrawal, a professor of Strategic Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and holder of the Geoffrey Taber Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, will join Google’s Visiting Fellows program. In that role, he will collaborate with David Autor, a current fellow and head of MIT’s Department of Economics.

Google says Agrawal will contribute to research on the economics of AI and scientific discovery, AI and robotics, and the ways artificial intelligence could expand the frontier of human welfare. The company describes the visiting fellows initiative as a way to bring outside academic expertise into its core research agenda.

Agrawal’s appointment adds another perspective to the program’s examination of how AI may affect both economic production and the process of developing new knowledge. Google says the work will complement research into labor, enterprise activity and the longer-term consequences of technological change.

Two directors will lead empirical research

Google is also appointing Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock as directors of the AI & Economy Research Program. The two researchers will steer empirical projects and coordinate findings across the program’s research areas.

Madgavkar joins Google after two decades leading research at the McKinsey Global Institute, where her work covered labor markets, technology adoption and structural economic transitions. Google says she has advised governments, multilateral institutions and business leaders, and contributed regularly to the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.

At Google, Madgavkar will lead empirical research on global AI diffusion, small-business ecosystems and the workforce effects of generative AI. Her remit places adoption and labor-market changes at the center of the company’s effort to measure how AI is affecting economies.

Rock is joining from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Google describes him as an economist specializing in AI and labor who has co-authored foundational papers on technological transitions. He is also an AI2050 Early Career Fellow and an MIT Digital Fellow.

Rock will lead research that combines frontier model telemetry with econometric analysis. Google says this work will examine enterprise productivity, labor restructuring and scientific discovery, linking data about AI systems with measurable economic outcomes.

Research aimed at policy and workforce decisions

Madgavkar and Rock will lead the program alongside Alex Imas, Google DeepMind’s Director of AGI Economics, and Zanna Iscenko, AI & Economy Lead in Google’s Chief Economist’s Office. Together, the expanded team will provide research intended to inform future updates to AI & Economy ATLAS and other empirical projects.

Google says the program will look beyond measuring adoption to identify organizational practices, public-policy frameworks and training programs that could help workers adapt. The company’s stated aim is to support AI that upskills workers, broadens access to expertise and contributes to broadly shared prosperity.

The company has made its latest research publications and global data available through its AI & Economy research platform. Google says the expanded program will continue tracking AI’s development as the technology affects workplaces, businesses and scientific work.

Sources

• Google AINew experts join Google’s AI & Economy team