AI Takes Charge, Leading to Further Layoffs in Google’s Assistant and Hardware Teams

(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google said on Wednesday it was laying off hundreds of workers across multiple teams, with Fitbit founders James Park and Eric Friedman also leaving the company as the tech giant continues to cut costs.

Google said it will lay off hundreds of people from its Voice Assistant unit, while a few hundred roles will be cut from the hardware team responsible for the Pixel, Nest and Fitbit, and most of the people in the augmented reality (AR) team will be let go. The company said it will also affect hundreds of roles in the search giant’s central engineering team.

Google bought health and fitness tracking company Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2021, but has continued to release new versions of its Pixel Watch, a product that competes with some of Fitbit’s devices and also the Apple Watch.

“During the second half of 2023, several of our teams made changes to become more efficient and operational, and to focus resources on their top product priorities. Some teams will continue to make these types of organizational changes, which will include some role eliminations globally,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters in a statement.

The spokesperson did not specify the number of influential roles. It’s not immediately clear how many people are part of the Google Assistant software and other teams.

The reorganization of certain teams comes at a time when companies like Microsoft and Google are betting on the mainstreaming of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology following the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Last year, Google announced plans to add creative AI capabilities to its virtual assistant. AI would allow the assistant to do things like help people plan a trip or follow up on emails and then ask follow-up questions.

In January 2023, Alphabet announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs, equivalent to 6 percent of its global workforce.

As of September 2023, Alphabet had 182,381 employees worldwide.