Google’s AI ambitions lead to major job cuts, impacting 30,000 employees. A,30k job cutsnalyst reactions, potential impact, and questions for the future.
New Town, West Bengal, India – December 25, 2023 – In a move that ripples through the tech industry, Google is set to undergo a significant workforce restructuring, impacting an estimated 30,000 employees. While the official reasons remain shrouded in some secrecy, whispers point towards the rising tide of artificial intelligence (AI) as a major driver behind the decision.
According to reports, Google intends to reorganise its ad sales division in light of artificial intelligence’s (AI) growing operational role. This has raised worries that Google’s 30,000-person ad sales division may be facing a significant layoff.
According to a report from The Information, Google will soon experience a huge loss of jobs as a result of recent advancements in AI. According to the article, the tech business intends to automate some tasks in the customer support and ad sales divisions.
It has been revealed that choices to terminate a specific number of employees were deliberated about in a Google Ads department meeting. This comes after Google introduced conversational ads as part of its “new era of AI-powered ads” announcement.
Google’s AI ads programme will make artificial intelligence available for website scanning, keyword generation, headline creation, picture creation, and other ad elements.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have become increasingly popular. Google AI, the company’s own artificial intelligence branch, has conducted numerous studies and research projects on how to use AI tools to improve business operations.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, on Google’s layoffs
Following the largest layoff in the company’s history for a full year, CEO Sundar Pichai recently discussed the factors that led to the painful choice and the company’s subsequent performance. According to Pichai, morale has suffered greatly as a result of the layoffs.
Pichai justified the layoffs, arguing that the choice was “difficult but necessary” and that the company would have made a “worse decision down the line” if a certain number of employees hadn’t been let go.
“It would have been a major overhang on the company,” declared the CEO of Google. I believe that having the ability to spend in some areas would have been quite challenging in a year like this with such a significant change in the world.”
Sundar Pichai opens up on laying off over 12,000 employees
CEO Sundar Pichai discussed how the company’s choice to let go of 12,000 workers was difficult but essential to its expansion.
When Google decided to abruptly let off 12,000 people a year ago, it sent its employees into a frenzy. This was the largest layoff in the company’s history. Sundar Pichai, the CEO, has finally disclosed the precise details of the layoffs.
Some Google employees voiced their worries during an all-hands meeting about the huge layoff that occurred in 2022, during which CEO Sundar Pichai allegedly “defended” the plan to eliminate 6% of the company’s workforce.
“This was evident during Google’s most recent all-hands meeting on Tuesday, December 12, when CEO Sundar Pichai defended the choice to lay off 6% of the company’s employees, according to a report from Business Insider that included audio from the gathering.
“It has been almost a year since we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce,” a worker questioned Pichai during the discussion. What effects did this choice have on our morale, growth, and P&L?”
In response, the CEO of Google stated that it was one of the “most difficult decisions for the company” and that it had a significant effect on employee morale. He continued, “At Google, we really haven’t had a moment quite like that in 25 years.”
Employees worried about possible job cutbacks as Google plans to “restructure” its ad sales unit: Report
According to reports, Google intends to “reorganize” a “big part” of its ad sales unit. This has employees worried that job losses may occur, as the company has already let go of 12,000 people this year the most in the history of the internet giant.
What is the news?
Sean Downey, Google’s President of Americas and Global Partners, disclosed the idea to “restructure” the ad sales teams internally during a meeting last week, according to The Information, which broke the news.
However, Downey remained silent during the discussion when asked if this would result in more job losses. The department in question employs up to 30,000 workers.
Why would there be layoffs?
This is due to the fact that Google made this decision when it is still investing in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to support higher ad spending. However, using AI would mean less human interaction. As a result, the Mountain View, California-based corporation may decide to explore layoffs or, at the very least, reassigning the potentially affected staff members to a different department inside the company.
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