Google lays off hundreds working on Assistant software, other parts of firm

A few hundred roles are being eliminated in the company's Devices and Services team, with the majority in the 1P AR hardware team, the company said

Alphabet Inc’s Google on Wednesday said it was laying off hundreds of employees working on its digital assistant, hardware, and engineering teams as it sustains a drive to cut costs.

This comes a day after Amazon.com said it was laying off hundreds of employees in its Prime Video and studios business, raising questions about whether another major round of layoffs was underway in Silicon Valley. 

 The affected workers at Google included those working on the voice-based Google Assistant and at the augmented reality (AR) hardware team. Employees in the company’s central engineering organisation also got hit by cuts, the firm said. Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman are also leaving the firm. Google bought health and fitness tracking company Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2021 but has continued to roll out new versions of its Pixel Watch, a product that competes with some of Fitbit's devices and also the Apple Watch.

 The reductions come as Google’s core search business feels the heat from rival artificial-intelligence offerings from Microsoft Corp. and ChatGPT-creator OpenAI. On calls with investors, Google executives pledged to scrutinise their operations to identify places where they can make cuts, and free up resources to invest in their biggest priorities. 

 “Throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organisational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”

Workers at the search giant have been on edge since January of last year, when parent Alphabet said it would cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6 per cent of its global workforce. That sent shock waves through Silicon Valley. But the company continued to make smaller trims over the course of 2023, including layoffs within teams focused on recruiting, news products and the Waze mapping app.

While the large round of cuts in January 2023 was telegraphed by Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, this year’s reductions have been communicated by lower-level leaders, such as vice presidents and human resources, according to a current employee and a former worker.

Semafor first reported the layoffs to the Google Assistant team, while 9to5Google first reported the reorganisation for hardware. Affected staffers have begun receiving the news and will have the opportunity to apply for open positions elsewhere within Google, the company said.

The Alphabet Workers Union, which represents some of its employees, criticized the job cuts in a statement posted to the social network X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Our members and teammates work hard every day to build great products for our users, and the company cannot continue to fire our coworkers while making billions every quarter,” the group said. “We won’t stop fighting until our jobs are safe!”