Is Google CEO Sundar Pichai Considering Second Round Of Layoffs? Details Inside

ALPHABET CEO Sundar Pichai has indicated that there may be another round of layoffs after the tech giant announced its first round of layoffs earlier this year. The company slashed these jobs in order to become more efficient. This became clearer when in an interview with Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Sundar Pichai did not rule out the second round of mass layoffs.

Without directly addressing the prospects, Pichai hinted that more layoffs could soon follow at the company. 

In an exclusive interview with WSJ, when asked about the second round of layoffs, Pichai said: “We’re very, very focused on this set of opportunities we have, and I think there’s a lot of work left. There’s also an important inflection point with AI. Where we can, we are definitely prioritizing and moving people to our most important areas, so that is ongoing work."

While responding to the company’s goal to cut operating costs by 20% this year in certain divisions, Pichai said: “In different areas we have different subgoals, but at a company level, do we have goals to durably improve our margins and drive long-term savings? Yes, but not specifically worded that way."

In January this year, Google parent Alphabet announced its plan to cut more than 12,000 jobs representing 6% of its global workforce in an attempt to become more efficient.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Google CEO is facing one of the biggest challenges as the leader of the search engine giant given the emerging threat from Chatbots like ChatGPT, developed by business rival Microsoft. 

Referring to Google's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Bard, new Workspace capabilities in Gmail and Google Docs and other projects, Pichai stated, “We’re very, very focused on this set of opportunities we have, and I think there’s a lot of work left.

There’s also an important inflection point with AI. Where we can, we are definitely prioritizing and moving people to our most important areas, so that is ongoing work.”

The share price of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) last closed 0.85% lower at $105.22 a piece on Wednesday (12 April). The company commands a market capitalization of approximately $1.35 Trillion.