Sundar Pichai hints at more Google dismissals

In addition to 12,000 roles cut in January

Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO and co-founder, has hinted that there may be more cuts to come at the search giant, as it looks to slash costs and raise efficiencies.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal about the company's AI developments, Mr 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 prioritising and moving people to our most important areas, so that is ongoing work."

Responding to a question about Google's planned 20% efficiency improvements, Pichai added that the company is "literally looking at every aspect of what we do."

"We are trying to accomplish that across many different ways. We're literally looking at every aspect of what we do, and as we said on our last earnings call, we're thinking about how to re-engineer our cost base in a durable way. We are definitely being focused on creating durable savings. We are pleased with the progress, but there's more work left to do."

Talk of "re-engineering a cost base" and creating "durable savings" are often euphemisms for dismissals.

Google cut about 6% of its global workforce - 12,000 people - in January, joining rivals like Microsoft, Meta and Amazon.

Tech companies have been implementing sweeping redundancies since the middle of last year, citing rising costs; over-hiring in the pandemic; and changing priorities.

However, those firms haven't had it all their own way, particularly outside the US where employment protection law is more robust. For example, Google employees in Switzerland staged a walkout last month, protesting the 200 cuts that affected the Zurich office.

Pichai said Google made the worldwide cuts to make sure roles are "aligned with our highest priorities" - by which he means investments in AI.

However, groups already under-represented in the tech world, such as women and certain ethnic minorities, seem to have been unfairly targeted by the cuts.

Approximately 45% of the tech redundancies globally have affected women - which doesn't sound too bad, until you realise that women only make up around 27% of tech industry jobs in the first place.

AI tools are an exciting prospect, but there are already concerns that women and minorities could be affected more by automation than white men. We may already be seeing that at the very start of the supply chain.