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Google is expanding its AI & Economy Research Program with two directors, a new academic adviser and a visiting fellow. The enlarged team will study how artificial intelligence affects employment, productivity, business adoption and scientific discovery, while contributing to future updates of Google's AI & Economy ATLAS.
New Research Leadership
Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock are joining as directors of the program. Madgavkar, formerly a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, will lead empirical work on global AI diffusion, small businesses and the workforce effects of generative AI. Rock is moving from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to lead research connecting model telemetry with econometric analysis of enterprise productivity, changes in labor and scientific discovery.
They will lead the program alongside Alex Imas, Google's director of AGI Economics, and Zanna Iscenko, AI & Economy lead in the company's Chief Economist's Office.
Advisers Join the Program
Philippe Aghion is joining as an academic adviser, adding his research on innovation-led growth and creative destruction to work modeling AI's long-term macroeconomic effects. Google identifies Aghion as a 2025 Nobel laureate in economics and a professor at INSEAD and the Collège de France. He joins an advisory group that already includes Michael Spence and Dame Diane Coyle.
Ajay Agrawal, a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, is becoming a visiting fellow. His work will cover the economics of AI and scientific discovery, robotics and human welfare, in collaboration with existing fellow David Autor.
Research Scope
Google says the program will combine company data with economic research to examine the future of work, productivity and growth, international technology diffusion, and AI's role in scientific discovery. Its findings are intended to inform later versions of ATLAS, an open-access interactive site focused on how people use Google's AI tools at work and in daily life.
Because the announcement comes from Google, the stated research priorities and intended benefits reflect the company's own plans. The source does not provide new findings from the expanded team or specify when its next research outputs or ATLAS updates will appear.
Source: New experts join Google’s AI & Economy team
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