In keeping with the IT industry’s tendency of cutting labour costs, Google has started making large layoffs in a number of departments, including the Voice Assistant, hardware, engineering, and ad sales teams. Numerous members of the augmented reality (AR) team, hardware teams in charge of Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit products, and hundreds of Voice Assistant staff members have all been impacted by the layoffs. This year action is a component of Google’s larger initiative to optimise processes and allocate resources in line with its top product objectives.
One year after laying off 12,000 workers,
The Verge claims that there are thousands of them in all. The parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc., announced record profits in late January around the same time as this. The business’s Q4 net income was $20.4 billion.
The Large Customer Sales (LCS) unit, which is in charge of selling advertisements to big businesses, has been the target of the ad sales team’s decrease. A strategic change in Google’s approach to ad sales is indicated by the restructuring, which wants to put more emphasis on the Google Customer Solutions (GCS) team, which works with smaller company clients.
Since Google continues to make significant investments in the advancement of AI technology, the layoffs have caused a great deal of anxiety among staff members, not only about job security but also on the moral implications of their work. Anxiety over job losses is being compounded by a growing fear that the drive towards automation and artificial intelligence (AI) may eventually result in additional job replacements.
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A recently released letter states that Google’s top priority for 2024 would be artificial intelligence (AI). Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s complete set of objectives for 2024 is as follows:
1. Provide the most sophisticated, secure, and accountable Al
2. Boost productivity, creativity, learning, and knowledge
3. Create the most beneficial gadgets and platforms for personal computers.
4. Make it possible for businesses and developers to innovate using Google Cloud
5. Offer the most reliable products and platforms in the globe.
6. Create an outstanding Google for both users and the global community.
7. Increase business velocity, productivity, and efficiency while generating long-term cost savings
Employee morale has been severely impacted by this circumstance, and many are disillusioned about their futures at the company, according to Inc. Employee cynicism and fatigue have been caused by layoffs and the strategic focus on AI research. This has been made worse by workers’ fear of being replaced by the very technology they are working to build.
Within the organisation, concerns about AI starting to replace workers at Alphabet were present as late as last year. Late last year, Futurism revealed that the IT behemoth has started implementing internal AI tools to replace certain positions. On a recent earnings call, however, Philipp Schindler, senior vice president of Google, made different remarks regarding the company’s recent restructuring and layoffs.
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stated Schindler,” I want to be clear, when we restructure, there is always an occasion to be more effective and smarter in how we service and grow our guests.”” We are not restructuring because AI is taking down important places then,” he continued. still, we believe that there are great chances for our AI- powered result to give amazing ROI at scale, which is why we’re making some of those changes.
The reorganisation and layoffs at Google are reflective of the larger issues that the tech sector is facing, as businesses struggle with both the ethical counteraccusations of robotization and artificial intelligence and fiscal constraints. The effect on staff morale and the possibility of farther layoffs draw attention to the fine line that must be drawn between invention and the mortal cost of specialized progress.