Google expands AI & Economy research team

Google is expanding its AI & Economy Research Program with economists and researchers who will study how artificial intelligence changes work, productivity, technology adoption and scientific discovery. The company announced the expansion on 18 September 2026 as an extension of its AI & Economy ATLAS v1.0, an open-access project intended to show how people use Google’s AI tools at work and in daily life.

The new group includes Philippe Aghion as an academic adviser and Ajay Agrawal as a visiting fellow. Aghion, a Nobel laureate in economics, will contribute research on innovation-led growth and creative destruction. Agrawal will work with David Autor and other researchers on the economics of AI, scientific discovery, robotics and human welfare. Google is also appointing Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock as directors of the research program.

Madgavkar will lead empirical work on global AI diffusion, small-business ecosystems and the effects of generative AI on the workforce. Rock will connect model telemetry with econometric analysis of enterprise productivity, labour restructuring and scientific discovery. Google says the program will combine external academic advice, visiting research and internal data rather than treating AI adoption as a single technology statistic.

The stated research agenda covers four broad questions: how organisations use AI, whether those uses improve productivity and growth, how adoption spreads between countries and sectors, and whether AI changes the pace of scientific work. Google says the expanded team will help shape future ATLAS updates and identify organisational practices, public-policy frameworks and training programs that could support broadly shared prosperity.

This matters because the public debate about AI is moving from launch claims to questions about measured use and economic outcomes. Better evidence could help workers, companies and policymakers distinguish real changes in productivity from promotional expectations. The announcement itself, however, is not an independent economic study or a finding that AI has already improved jobs. The data, definitions and research priorities remain connected to Google, so outside researchers will need to test and challenge the results. For now, the concrete news is the expansion of Google’s capacity to produce and influence evidence about AI’s economic effects.