US tech major Google is planning more layoffs as its CEO Sundar Pichai has spoken out about the possibility of a second round of job cut in the company. In one of his latest interviews with the Wall Street Journal, Pichai hinted that more layoffs could follow soon at Google. The year 2023 has already seen a significant number of layoffs as global tech giants, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others have terminated employees to cut cost.
Pichai, in his discussion with the Wall Street Journal, said the company is ‘very, very focused’ on their current opportunities and that there is a ‘lot of work left’. He added that the firm is now prioritising the most crucial areas and is thereby moving people accordingly.
A few months ago, Sundar Pichai said that Google is looking to become more efficient and in his recent interaction, he explained that Google is “literally looking at every aspect”, while adding that they are working on re-engineering the cost base in a durable way.
Pichai said that some progress has been made, he reiterated that there is still more work that is yet to be done. “We’re very, very focused on this set of opportunities we have, and I think there’s a lot of work left. There’s also an important inflection point with AI. Where we can, we are definitely prioritising and moving people to our most important areas, so that is ongoing work”, said CEO Pichai.
This comes after Google announced its plan in January to hand over pink slips to over 12,000 employees globally. Nearly 450 Indian employees were also impacted by the layoffs. The timing of layoffs at Google coincided with the debut of Google Bard AI, which made a factual error during a presentation, thereby leading to a loss of $100 billion in valuation for the company.
Meanwhile, another US-based tech giant Apple Inc. is cutting down a small number of roles within its corporate retail teams, citing sources privy to the development news agency Reuters reported last week. According to the report, this is the first known internal job elimination since Apple embarked on a belt-tightening effort last year.