Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Thursday that Prabhakar Raghavan, the executive in charge of the company's search engine and advertising products, will be leaving his post. Nick Fox, a Google veteran, will be his replacement. Raghavan, after more than a decade leading various teams at the company, will take on a new role as chief technology officer.
"Prabhakar has decided it's time for a big career move," Pichai explained in the statement. "After 12 years leading teams at Google, he will return to his roots in computer science and take on the role of Chief Technology Officer at Google. In this role, he will work closely with me and other Google leaders to provide technical direction, leadership and foster our culture of technology excellence."
Raghavan and Nick Fox
Raghavan, who has played a key role in implementing AI-powered products at Google, led the Gmail team to launch tools such as Smart Reply and Smart Compose, which were the first to incorporate AI into the email service. Under his leadership, innovations such as AI Overviews and Circle to Search were also introduced in the search engine, in addition to AI-based features in Google Maps and Shopping, such as Immersive View and the virtual fitting room.
Nick Fox, who will take the reins of the division, is another longtime Google executive. Pichai noted that Fox has been instrumental in defining the company's AI-based product roadmap, and has worked closely with Raghavan and his team. Fox has alsobeen instrumental in the launch of products such as Google Fi and RCS messaging.
Restructuring at DeepMind
In addition to the leadership changes, Pichai announced that the Gemini application team, headed by Sissie Hsiao, will join Google DeepMind under the leadership of Demis Hassabis. According to Pichai, this integrationwill improve cross-team feedback, accelerate the deployment of new models in the Gemini app, and optimize post-training work on those models, driving product development.
In addition, the Google Assistant team will be integrated into Google's Platforms and Devices team, allowing them to be closer to the products for which they are developing technologies. These changes come as Google seeks to consolidate its position as a leader in artificial intelligence, in a context where it faces several litigations for antitrust practices, which adds an additional challenge to its growth strategy.