Google confirmed on Tuesday its decision to lay off hundreds of employees within its global advertising sales team, as the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in various administrative and creative tasks continues to increase, according to a report by the French news agency.
The report stated that a spokesperson for the internet giant mentioned, “Every year we undergo a rigorous process to restructure our team to provide the best service to our advertising clients… As part of this, we are letting go of several hundred jobs globally.”
The spokesperson added, “Affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for vacant positions within the team or elsewhere within Google.”
The California-based company emphasized that the changes in this service would enable better support for small and medium-sized businesses, supporting more clients, while the remaining employees would focus on clients from larger companies.
Google also plans to create new roles and increase hiring this year, indicating a larger transformation than during the pandemic, according to the report.
The company did not explicitly mention generative artificial intelligence (AI) (automated content production), which has caused significant disruption in various sectors, including advertising.
Last week, Google Cloud, the cloud computing service, announced new solutions involving artificial intelligence and generative AI “to help retailers customize online shopping services, update operations, and implement new technologies in stores,” according to a statement from Google’s remote computing branch.
According to the report, the new tools allow brands to create virtual agents capable of interacting with consumers on websites and mobile apps in a more flexible and complex manner than non-generative AI chatbots.
This technology, which has brought about radical changes in technology companies in Silicon Valley and beyond since last year, also works to accelerate the automated process of creativity and development.
Among its new tools, Google Cloud includes “generative AI for creating and analyzing images, as well as associated descriptive texts, automatically generating attractive product descriptions, product metadata, and language adapting to improve the search engine,” according to the statement.
Google laid off approximately 6% of its workforce, equivalent to 12,000 employees, in January 2023, in response to inflation and rising interest rates, leading to a decline in advertiser spending. Since then, the internet giant has heavily invested in generative artificial intelligence.
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