How Google uses AI for ESG reporting — and what you can learn from it
- Arvis Zeile
- Dec 29, 2025
- 3 min read
How Google is using AI for ESG reporting
Google has been testing AI in their own sustainability reporting for almost two years. They finally decided to share what they've learned—and the timing couldn't be more interesting.
Their core message is practical: sustainability teams are hitting capacity limits. Between fragmented data, manual processes, and the constant churn of changing standards, there's barely any time left for the work that actually matters. AI, in their view, isn't about replacing people. It's about handling the mechanical parts so teams can focus on strategy.
As Google puts it in the playbook: "You must remain the pilot rather than the passenger when it comes to AI."
The regulatory mess of 2025
Here's what makes this year particularly challenging. It's not just "more regulations"—it's regulatory chaos.
In the EU, the much-anticipated CSRD and CSDDD frameworks have been dramatically scaled back. The scope has narrowed so much that over 80% of companies originally required to report are now exempt. Timelines have been pushed. Requirements have been simplified. In the US, the picture is even starker—broad deregulation has rolled back many ESG-related rules entirely.
But here's the catch: for the companies that are still in scope, the requirements remain complex. And for anyone doing business across borders, the patchwork of what applies where creates its own headache. Teams aren't just dealing with more rules or fewer rules - they're dealing with uncertainty about which rules apply at all.
This is exactly the kind of operational strain where AI can help.
What Google actually built
The playbook includes a five-step framework for integrating AI into reporting workflows:
audit your current processes,
identify high-friction tasks,
select the right AI tools,
build and test prototypes,
then document what works so it can scale.
Google breaks down where AI adds the most value:
Data analytics — automating data management, detecting anomalies, identifying gaps, running peer benchmarks and supplier analysis.
Content generation — drafting narratives, standardising language to match reporting frameworks, summarising documents, even generating alt text for accessibility.
Content interaction — helping stakeholders query sustainability data, localisation, pictures, scanned documents, even videos.
They're using tools like Gemini for language tasks and NotebookLM for validating claims against source documents. One interesting approach: they use "persona-based prompting" to stress-test draft statements by simulating how an investigative journalist, investor, or NGO might read and interpret the language.
How Mitigate Platform aligns with this
The Mitigate ESG Platform was built around many of the same principles—before we even saw Google's playbook.
Gap analysis — Our module automatically reviews ESRS and VSME requirements, flags incomplete data, and assigns responsibility. Same principle Google describes: use AI to identify what's missing before auditors do.
AI auditor — Google emphasises "claims validation" to reduce greenwashing risk. Our auditor scans for inconsistencies, assesses data transparency, and provides specific fix recommendations.
Automated data collection — Google calls out "time sinks" like parsing documentation and chasing down data. We solved this with automated data generation and simplified ingestion—upload an invoice, get automatic emission calculations.
NEW 🔥 Fully automated sustainability Due Diligence powered by AI — Just recently we finished and published a new module which scans your company documents, information on internet, performs a deep research and builds your: business model canvas, value chain and impacts, risks and opportunities long-list. A great way how to start Due Diligence in your company, because your AI-colleague will already provide valuable findings upfront.
Where this is heading (opinion)
The era of managing ESG through spreadsheets and shared folders is ending. Not because regulators demand it—the regulatory picture is actually getting messier—but because the complexity of sustainability data has outgrown manual processes.
AI won't replace sustainability professionals. But it will handle the mechanical work so teams can focus on what actually moves the needle: strategy, stakeholder engagement, and driving real impact.
That's the future we're building toward with Mitigate.
Think of it this way: sustainability reporting is a 10,000-piece puzzle with pieces scattered across different rooms. Google just showed everyone what a good sorting system looks like. Mitigate is the machine that finds every piece and puts them together for you.
