"In This AI Moment...": Sundar Pichai's Advice To Take Advantage Of Transition
"Anytime you go through a period of extraordinary investment, you respond by adding a lot of headcount, right?" Mr Pichai told employees in a meeting last week. "But in this AI moment, I think we have to accomplish more by taking advantage of this transition to drive higher productivity," according to audio obtained by CNBC.
At the same meeting, Brian Saluzzo, Vice President for Core Development and Product Management, called for the urgent need to bring AI into more engineering workflows to speed up development and improve output.
"We feel the urgency to 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," Mr Saluzzo said.
Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced earlier that it would raise capital expenditures to $85 billion in 2025, up from $75 billion. Mr Pichai made it clear that the company should be "frugal" with its resources and focus on efficiency.
"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," he added.
Mr Saluzzo introduced several AI tools for software engineers, including "AI Savvy Google" for training, Cider, an internal coding assistant now used weekly by half its users, and "Building with Gemini," a DeepMind-backed programme on advanced AI models.
"We have a portfolio of AI products available to employees so folks can go faster," he said, adding these tools will "continuously get better."
Google's AI push is similar to many others across the tech industry. Microsoft has told employees that "using AI is no longer optional," while Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said teams must first prove AI can't solve a problem before requesting more resources.
Alphabet's workforce headcount remains below its 2023 peak. As of June, the company had over 187,000 full-time employees, down from nearly 191,000 early last year. In 2023, Google cut about 6 per cent of its workforce and has since continued streamlining teams and offering buyouts.
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