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New experts join Google’s AI & Economy team
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Google has expanded its AI & Economy Research Program with economists studying how artificial intelligence is changing work and daily life. The move follows AI & Economy ATLAS v1.0, an open-access site tracking use of Google’s AI tools. The program combines fine-grained data with economic inquiry to guide organizations, workers and policymakers.
The agenda covers work, productivity, technology diffusion and AI’s effects on scientific discovery. Researchers will measure change in real time rather than treat it as instantaneous. The aim is to produce evidence for organizations, workers, researchers and policymakers.
Philippe Aghion, identified by Google as a 2025 Nobel laureate in economics, joins as an advisor with Nobel laureate Michael Spence and Cambridge’s Dame Diane Coyle. Aghion will apply his research on innovation-led growth and creative destruction to AI’s macroeconomic trajectory. University of Toronto professor Ajay Agrawal becomes a visiting fellow and will collaborate with MIT’s David Autor.
Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock join as program directors alongside Google DeepMind’s Alex Imas and the Chief Economist’s Office’s Zanna Iscenko. Madgavkar, formerly of McKinsey Global Institute, will study AI diffusion, small businesses and generative AI’s workforce effects. Wharton’s Rock will examine productivity, labor restructuring and scientific discovery using model data and econometrics.
Madgavkar brings two decades of research on labor markets, technology adoption and structural change, along with advisory work for governments, businesses, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Rock is an AI2050 Early Career Fellow and MIT Digital Fellow known for work on AI and technological transitions.
Google said the expanded team will serve as a scientific bridge, directly informing future ATLAS updates and empirical projects. The company emphasized sustained cooperation among academia, industry and policymakers. Looking ahead, the researchers aim to identify AI’s economic opportunities while helping policymakers and institutions address disruption.
