Google is considering redirecting or potentially firing some employees in its sales division in another Google layoff due to the advancement of artificial intelligence-based tools, according to The Information.
For example, the new AI tools can automate significant portions of the ad sales workload by automatically suggesting and creating new ads that work for customers and require little of employees’ attention.
Therefore, the need for these employees has virtually disappeared and replacing employees with AI should increase Google’s profits in the long run. However, it is worth clarifying that Google’s president of the Americas and Global Partners, Sean Downey, held an internal meeting last week and did not state a Google layoff. Instead, the company may integrate the ad sales employees into other teams.
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Performance Max Could Result in a Future Google Layoff
In its appeal of “A new era of advertising based on AI” as a way to improve advertisers’ interaction with the company, Google had enhanced and added generative AI-based capabilities to its ad tool and AI-powered campaign planner, Performance Max, launched in 2021, making it easier to “Create custom assets and scale them in a few clicks”.
For example, Performance Max is a targeted campaign type designed to help advertisers increase conversions across all of Google’s advertising channels, including Search, Display, Discover, Maps, Gmail, and YouTube. It uses Google AI across bidding, budget optimisation, audiences, creatives, attribution and more to increase conversions by optimising ad performance across all channels in real time using Smart Bidding.
Thus, with the technology becoming more sophisticated and advanced, and the AI tools capable of scanning websites and automatically generating keywords, coming up with headlines, images and other aspects of the advertisement, the need for human intervention in ad sales has become less apparent, leading to the thought of being redundant and a future Google layoff on the horizon.
President Sundar Pichai Opens Up on Biggest Google Layoff
Prior to this potential Google layoff in 2024, the tech giant had also made headlines at the beginning of this year when Google executed the largest dismissal in its history by laying off over 12,000 employees due to looming recession fears at the time. Now, close to a year after the massive Google layoff, President Sundar Pichai has opened up and defended his decision with lingering regret. “Clearly, it’s not the right way to do it. I think it’s something we could have done differently for sure.”
For context, an employee questioned Pichai regarding the massive Google layoff in the all-hands meeting held last week. “It has been almost one year since we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce. What impact did this decision have on our growth, P&L, and morale?”
In response, Pichai defended the decision while acknowledging its substantial impact on morale. “At Google, we really haven’t had a moment quite like that in 25 years. It is the most difficult decision for the company. However, although it was difficult, it was necessary.”
Pichai explained that if he did not make the snap decision back then, it would result in a “worse decision down the line”. It would have been a major overhang for the company. I think it would have made it very difficult in a year like this with such a massive shift in the world to create the capacity to invest in areas.”
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Is Another Google Layoff the Correct Choice for the Tech Giant?
As mentioned earlier, diverting their attention to AI tools from human staff would benefit Google in the long run as it would reduce costs and generate more profit for the company. In addition, this shift to AI tools may help Google edge out its advertising landscape competitors such as Facebook and Amazon.
Furthermore, AI has matured significantly in recent years, achieving a level of efficiency and effectiveness that makes it a tempting alternative to human labour, as it is worth noting that not only in the advertising industry, many people may lose their jobs due to technologies based on AI.
However, if Google proceeds with another layoff, they must factor in the risk of the AI tools leading to impersonalisation, algorithmic bias, a lack of human expertise and many other concerns. As Tim Cook said: “What all of us have to do is to make sure we are using AI in a way that is for the benefit of humanity, not to the detriment of humanity.”
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