Google appoints research directors to study AI’s effects on work

Google has appointed Anu Madgavkar and Daniel Rock as directors of its AI & Economy Research Program, giving them responsibility for empirical work on how AI affects businesses and workers.

Madgavkar, formerly a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, will lead research into global adoption, small businesses and workforce effects. Rock joins from Wharton to study enterprise productivity, labour restructuring and scientific discovery, combining model usage data with economic analysis.

Google’s Scott Strand and Zanna Iscenko announced the appointments alongside two academic additions: Philippe Aghion as an adviser and Ajay Agrawal as a visiting fellow.

From usage data to economic questions

The expanded team will inform future updates to Google’s AI & Economy ATLAS, an existing open-access interactive site tracking how people use Google’s AI tools at work and in daily life.

That gives researchers and policymakers a resource they can already explore. Its scope matters: patterns of use across Google’s tools are not, by themselves, a measure of economy-wide productivity gains.

Google says the programme will examine organisational practices, policy frameworks and training. The appointments expand its capacity to investigate those questions; they are not new findings about whether AI raises wages, saves time or changes employment.