Google is reportedly planning to ‘reorganise’ a ‘big part’ of its ad sales unit, with the move sparking concern among employees that there could be more job cuts in a company that has already laid off 12,000 staff members this year, the largest in the tech giant’s history.
The Sundar Pichai-led firm has, however, not undertaken another round of layoffs this year.
What is the news?
According to The Information, which broke the story, the plan to ‘restructure’ the ad sales teams was shared internally by Sean Downey, Google’s in-charge of ad sales to ‘big customers’ in the Americas; the said meeting was held last week.
During the meeting, however, Downey did not say anything about whether this would lead to another round of job cuts, or not. As many as 30,000 people are part of the concerned department.
Why would there be layoffs, if any?
This is because Google’s move comes at a time when it continues to invest in artificial intelligence (AI), as well as machine learning, to facilitate increased ad purchasing. The use of AI, would, however, lead to diminished human involvement, and, therefore, the Mountain View-headquartered company could consider layoffs, or, at least, a reassignment of the likely-to-be-affected staffers to another department within the organisation.
What has Google said?
Google is yet to issue a statement on the story.
