Alphabet Inc.’s Google has announced layoffs within its workforce, affecting both the Google Assistant software and the Devices and Services team. The company revealed that it is letting go of hundreds of employees involved in the development of its voice-activated Google Assistant software, along with an equivalent number of roles in the Devices and Services team.
The job cuts extend to various departments, including workers dedicated to the voice-based Google Assistant and the augmented reality hardware team. Additionally, employees in the company’s central engineering organization have been impacted by these layoffs, according to information obtained by Reuters.
These workforce reductions are part of broader organizational changes that have been underway since the latter half of 2023, which also included layoffs within the company’s mapping app, Waze. The restructuring aims to enhance efficiency, improve collaboration, and align resources with the company’s major product priorities.
The Devices and Services team is witnessing a reduction in a few hundred roles, with a significant portion coming from the 1P AR hardware team. This reorganization was initially reported by tech media website 9to5Google.
Responding to the situation, a Google spokesperson stated, “Throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally.”
As of September 2023, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, had a global workforce of 182,381 employees. The layoffs in the Google Assistant and Devices and Services teams represent an ongoing effort to streamline operations and focus on key product initiatives.
In a related development, videogame software provider Unity Software has also announced significant job cuts, affecting approximately 25 percent of its workforce, or 1,800 jobs, as disclosed in a regulatory filing. These decisions reflect the broader trend of companies reassessing their structures and resources to adapt to changing market dynamics.
