Google CEO Sundar Pichai has informed employees about anticipated job cuts within the company this year, as revealed in an internal memo reported by The Verge on Wednesday. The memo stated that the layoffs aim to streamline execution and boost speed in certain areas by removing organizational layers. This aligns with the broader trend of companies exploring AI and automation to enhance efficiency and reduce workloads.
Pichai conveyed to all employees that these role eliminations won’t be on the scale of last year’s reductions and won’t impact every team. The memo emphasized that Google has ambitious goals and will be making investments in its significant priorities this year. A Google representative confirmed the email to Reuters but declined to disclose additional details from the memo.
Last week, Google announced layoffs affecting employees in its Voice Assistant units, hardware teams for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, advertising sales, and augmented reality. These job cuts are part of ongoing organizational changes initiated in the second half of 2023, which included layoffs at the mapping app Waze.
The Devices and Services team is reducing a few hundred roles, mainly in the 1P AR hardware team, confirming a reorganization report by 9to5Google. In January 2023, Alphabet revealed plans to cut 12,000 jobs, around 6% of its global workforce, with approximately 182,381 employees worldwide as of September 2023.
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