'Work smarter, not bigger': Google is rewriting how work gets done, tells staff to rely on AI, not colleagues
Competition pushing the AI agenda
Making Google's engineers more 'AI-savvy'
DeepMind partnership and new internal tools
Windsurf deal adds firepower
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
At a recent all-hands meeting, Google's top brass made their expectations clear. The company isn't just investing in artificial intelligence; it wants its employees to adapt to it quickly. Sundar Pichai , Google's CEO, spoke directly to staff about the balance between big investment and tight resources.'Anytime you go through a period of extraordinary investment, you respond by adding a lot of headcount, right? But in this AI moment, I think we have to accomplish more by taking advantage of this transition to drive higher productivity,' he said, according to an internal audio recording obtained by CNBC.Alphabet, Google's parent company, is now planning to spend $85 billion on capital projects in 2025. That's up from the earlier $75 billion projection. Most of that spending will likely go into infrastructure to support AI models and services.But while capital spending is rising, hiring is not.'We are going to be going through a period of much higher investment and I think we have to be frugal with our resources, and I would strive to be more productive and efficient as a company,' Pichai added. He also said he was 'very optimistic' about how the company is currently performing.Pichai also acknowledged the broader competition in the tech world, saying, 'We are competing with other companies in the world. There will be companies which will become more efficient through this moment in terms of employee productivity, which is why I think it's important to focus on that.'The push towards tighter teams and AI-driven work isn't unique to Google. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently told his staff that its corporate workforce would shrink over time as more tasks are handled by AI tools.In a company-wide email, Jassy wrote employees should start 'to get more done with scrappier teams.'Microsoft's Julia Liuson, who leads its developer tools division, told staff in June that 'using AI is no longer optional.' Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke went even further in April, telling teams they must show that AI cannot do the job before asking for more people or funding.At the same meeting, Brian Saluzzo laid out the company's internal roadmap for rolling out AI tools across engineering teams.'We feel the urgency to really quickly and urgently get AI into more of the coding workflows to address top needs so you see a much more rapid increase in velocity,' said Saluzzo, who oversees the technical foundations behind Google's core products.To do that, Google has been building a suite of internal tools and learning platforms. Saluzzo pointed to a site called AI Savvy Google, which includes toolkits, courses and sessions tailored to specific product areas. The goal is to make sure all engineers — not just AI specialists — can use these technologies in their daily work.He added, 'We have a portfolio of AI products available to employees so folks can go faster.'Google's engineering education team has partnered with DeepMind to create a training programme titled Building with Gemini. The course is aimed at teaching employees how to build effectively using Google's Gemini AI platform and will be rolled out soon.Another key tool is Cider, an internal AI-powered coding assistant. Since launching in May, it has already seen 50 percent weekly usage among staff. Saluzzo said this kind of tool will soon become part of everyday software development.'They'll become a pretty integral part of most SWE work,' he said, referring to software engineers.He also noted, 'Employees should expect them to continuously get better.'Google is not just building tools. It's bringing in top talent to accelerate the shift. Earlier this month, the company acquired Windsurf, a high-profile AI startup, in a $2.4 billion deal. As part of the acquisition, co-founder and CEO Varun Mohan, along with key research and engineering staff, joined Google.Commenting on the hire, Pichai said, 'I think they will end up helping a lot in this area as well.'Alphabet's employee numbers have risen slightly in recent quarters, but remain below the company's 2023 peak of nearly 191,000 full-time staff. As of the end of June, that figure stands at just over 187,000, based on Alphabet's latest financial filing.Back in early 2023, Google cut about 6 percent of its workforce and has continued making targeted reductions, including offering buyouts in some departments.The message from leadership is consistent: leaner teams, smarter tools, and faster output.Google declined to comment on the contents of the meeting.But the direction is clear. The company is placing its bets on AI — and expects its people to move with it.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
4 minutes ago
- Time of India
With BYD in fast lane, Tesla's Europe sales in July decline over 50% on-yr
Tesla continues to post steep sales declines in Europe's biggest electric vehicle (EV) markets, where the Elon Musk-led automaker is ceding significant share to China's BYD. In both Germany and the UK-by far the two leading countries for battery-electric vehicle registrations in Europe-Tesla's July sales fell by more than half compared with a year ago, according to figures reported Tuesday. BYD, by contrast, more than quadrupled registrations in each country. Last week, the national auto association for France-the No 3 market in Europe by EV sales-reported that Tesla's registrations dropped 27% in July and were down almost 40% through the first seven months of the year. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program Tesla pinned the blame for its early-year sales weakness on manufacturing disruptions linked to changing over production lines for its most important vehicle, the Model Y. But the company's slump has carried on even as it's ramped up output of the redesigned SUV, adding to concerns that its chief executive officer's polarizing and often politically charged persona have damaged Tesla's brand. On Monday, the company announced that it had approved an interim award of about $30 billion worth of Tesla stock to Musk as a legal fight over his 2018 pay package drags on. Tesla's struggles have created an opening for leading European manufacturers, as well as BYD. The Chinese automaker sold more fully electric cars in Europe than Tesla for the first time ever in April. Some analysts are predicting BYD will pull ahead of Tesla globally for the full year - and that's without BYDs even being available in Tesla's home market, the US. Live Events In Germany-Europe's biggest auto market and the home of Tesla's sole assembly plant in the region- BYD outsold Tesla for the third time this year in July. Economic Times WhatsApp channel )
NDTV
11 minutes ago
- NDTV
Australian Regulator Says YouTube, Others 'Turning Blind Eye' To Child Abuse Material
Australia's internet watchdog has said the world's biggest social media firms are still "turning a blind eye" to online child sex abuse material on their platforms, and said YouTube in particular had been unresponsive to its enquiries. In a report released on Wednesday, the eSafety Commissioner said YouTube, along with Apple, failed to track the number of user reports it received of child sex abuse appearing on their platforms and also could not say how long it took them to respond to such reports. The Australian government decided last week to include YouTube in its world-first social media ban for teenagers, following eSafety's advice to overturn its planned exemption for the Alphabet-owned Google's video-sharing site. "When left to their own devices, these companies aren't prioritising the protection of children and are seemingly turning a blind eye to crimes occurring on their services," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement. "No other consumer-facing industry would be given the licence to operate by enabling such heinous crimes against children on their premises, or services." Google has said previously that abuse material has no place on its platforms and that it uses a range of industry-standard techniques to identify and remove such material. Meta - owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the biggest platforms with more than 3 billion users worldwide - says it prohibits graphic videos. The eSafety Commissioner, an office set up to protect internet users, has mandated Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp to report on the measures they take to address child exploitation and abuse material in Australia. The report on their responses so far found a "range of safety deficiencies on their services which increases the risk that child sexual exploitation and abuse material and activity appear on the services". Safety gaps included failures to detect and prevent livestreaming of the material or block links to known child abuse material, as well as inadequate reporting mechanisms. It said platforms were also not using "hash-matching" technology on all parts of their services to identify images of child sexual abuse by checking them against a database. Google has said before that its anti-abuse measures include hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence. The Australian regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address these safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years. "In the case of Apple services and Google's YouTube, they didn't even answer our questions about how many user reports they received about child sexual abuse on their services or details of how many trust and safety personnel Apple and Google have on-staff," Inman Grant said.
Time of India
22 minutes ago
- Time of India
Ex-Google executive predicts a dystopian job apocalypse by 2027: 'AI will be better than humans at everything... even CEOs'
The End of Human Superiority? — StevenBartlett (@StevenBartlett) You Might Also Like: Is it safer to be a nurse than a doctor in the age of AI? Google DeepMind CEO shares a surprising take Divided Visions of the AI Future Not Just About Jobs, It's About Power In a thought-provoking episode of the 'Diary of a CEO' podcast, former Google X executive Mo Gawdat delivered a powerful prediction that's turning heads across industries: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will not just challenge white-collar work — it could soon replace many of its top decision-makers, including who previously served as the chief business officer at Google's innovation arm, didn't hold back. 'AGI is going to be better than humans at everything, including being a CEO,' he said. 'There will be a time where most incompetent CEOs will be replaced.'This warning comes amid rising public curiosity — and concern — about how AI will reshape the future of work . But Gawdat's perspective offers a sharp contrast to the often-optimistic vision shared by many industry has seen the future up close. His own AI-powered startup, focused on emotional intelligence , was developed by just three people — a feat he claims would have previously required 350 personal experience and decades in tech, he dismissed the common narrative that AI will create more jobs than it destroys. 'The idea that artificial intelligence will create jobs is 100% crap,' he said believes even roles requiring creativity and emotional nuance — from podcasters to video editors — are under threat. 'We're now in a short window of augmented intelligence, where we still work alongside AI,' Gawdat explained. 'But it's quickly moving toward machine mastery.'More than just a tech transition, Gawdat sees this moment as an existential reckoning for society.'We were never made to wake up every morning and just occupy 20 hours of our day with work,' he said. 'We defined our purpose as work — that's a capitalist lie.'He envisions a future that might seem utopian: one where people are free to focus on creativity, community, and joy, supported by universal basic income and freed from the grind of conventional getting there won't be easy. Gawdat warns of a 'short-term dystopia' by 2027, marked by mass unemployment and economic instability if governments and institutions don't act urgent tone stands in contrast with other tech figures like Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, who remains bullish on AI's potential to uplift workers. Huang argues that prompting and training AI is itself a sophisticated skill, and that the technology will augment human effort rather than erase Mark Cuban champions AI literacy through youth-focused initiatives, while Meta's AI scientist Yann LeCun dismisses doomsday narratives altogether, insisting humans will remain in Gawdat isn't alone. AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have also voiced grave concerns about unchecked AI development. Amodei, in a recent podcast appearance, predicted that up to 20% of entry-level white-collar jobs could vanish within five tension is palpable. While some advocate for open innovation, others call for tight regulations to prevent reckless fears that in the hands of profit-driven leaders, AI could deepen inequality. 'Unless you're in the top 0.1%, you're a peasant. There is no middle class,' he stated, highlighting the potential for AI to consolidate power and concern echoes growing divisions within Silicon Valley itself. Amodei recently lashed out at Huang for misrepresenting his cautious stance on AI, accusing the NVIDIA boss of spreading 'outrageous lies' to downplay the has also warned against a 'race to the bottom' in AI development, advocating instead for a responsible and transparent path — one that companies like Anthropic claim to model through open research and ethical the gloom, Gawdat remains hopeful for what lies beyond the upheaval — a society where AI relieves us of soul-crushing labor and gives us back our time, relationships, and his closing words are a reminder of how serious the stakes are:'This is real. This is not science fiction.'
