Google is expanding the team that studies how artificial intelligence changes employment, productivity and economic growth. The company has added economists Philippe Aghion and Ajay Agrawal as academic advisor and visiting fellow, while Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock will become directors of its AI and Economy Research Program.
Aghion, a 2025 Nobel laureate in economics, will contribute research on innovation-led growth and long-term macroeconomic change. Agrawal, a University of Toronto professor, will focus on the economics of AI and scientific discovery, robotics and human welfare. Madgavkar, formerly a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, will lead empirical work on global adoption, small businesses and workforce effects. Rock joins from Wharton to study enterprise productivity, labor restructuring and scientific discovery using economic methods and model-usage data.
The group will build on Google’s ATLAS project, an open-access dataset and interactive site that tracks how people use the company’s AI tools. Google says future work will examine the practices, training programs and policies that could spread benefits while limiting disruption. Because the researchers work within a major AI vendor, their access to detailed product data is valuable but also makes transparent methods and independent scrutiny important when findings inform public policy.