Google uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manage talent and reduce costs. According to a memo sent to Google’s finance employees by Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, the restructuring will affect teams worldwide.
Porat wrote that the technology sector is amid a tremendous platform change with AI. Google plans to create “hubs” for centralized operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Mexico City, Bangalore, and Dublin.
Impact on employees
Although Google did not confirm the number of job cuts related to finance, a company spokesperson said that during the second half of 2023 and 2024, several of their teams made changes to be more efficient and work better. Investing more in emerging technologies like AI in 2024 means the company will have to “make difficult decisions,” according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in January.
According to Niccolo de Masi, president of the Futurum Group, a technology research and advisory firm, as Google reduces costs, “they are going to use this money to reinvest in bringing excellent products to customers even faster.”
De Masi also mentioned that AI is a net job creator. According to the president of the Futurum Group, CEO of Glu Mobile, and former CEO of dMY Technologies, AI will be compared to ATMs and Excel spreadsheets, which “have exponentially increased the number of people working in finance in the last 50 years”. AI will take care of mundane tasks, although a higher level of experience will still be necessary, at least to some extent.
This could mean that some teams lose personnel. However, Google is not the only large tech company that is readjusting its staff to the era of AI. According to Dan Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush, this is for the better. “This is a leaner, more aggressive Google that is now on the offensive around AI,” said Ives.
Pichai shared several structural changes to “improve speed and execution across the company” in a blog post on Thursday. One of the changes is consolidating teams that focus on building models in Research and DeepMind.
