Google eliminates hundreds of jobs in ad team tweak

Google confirmed it is eliminating “a few hundred” positions from its global ad team, amid a push to use artificial intelligence for efficiency and creativity.

Google is cutting jobs in its “large customer” sales team to enhance support for small and medium-sized businesses advertising on its platform.

The company anticipates expanding its small business ad teams, leading to increased hiring this year.

Interestingly, Google did not mention generative AI, a technology causing disruption in various sectors, including advertising.

Recently, Google’s cloud computing unit introduced new AI tools to assist retailers in personalizing online shopping, updating operations, and modernizing in-store technology.

Google referenced research indicating that about 80 percent of US retailers see adopting generative AI as urgent for their operations.

In a release Google Cloud strategic industries vice president Carrie Tharp said that “In only a year, generative AI has morphed from a barely recognized concept to one of the fastest-moving capabilities in all of technology and a critical part of many retailers’ agendas.”

According to a release new Google AI tools included enabling retailers to easily embed virtual agents in websites or mobile apps to provide personalized help and recommendations to shoppers.

The company said Google AI is also being put to work analyzing product images and producing product descriptions or terms suited to optimize discovery in online searches.

Around a year ago, Google laid off approximately 12,000 employees, which constituted about six percent of its workforce. This move was in response to inflation and increasing interest rates.

Since then, the Silicon Valley company has made substantial investments in generative AI.