Google may cut 30,000 jobs as AI takes over ad sales roles
Google is reportedly considering laying off up to 30,000 employees, nearly 10% of its workforce, as it looks to restructure its advertising sales unit using artificial intelligence.
According to The Information, Google plans to align a major part of its 30,000-person ad sales team with new AI tools that can create and optimize ads with less human involvement.
This potential move comes after Google laid off 12,000 employees earlier this year. The introduction of the company's AI-powered ad platform called Performance Max in 2021 has reduced the need for specialized ad sales staff.
Performance Max uses generative AI to automatically generate ad creative and assets that resonate better with customers. As more advertisers adopt this tool, manual ad creation and optimization work becomes redundant.
Google's president of the Americas recently announced plans to reorganize ad sales around Performance Max and other AI advancements. However, he did not confirm if this will necessitate another round of job cuts.
If Google fires 30,000 more employees, it would be the tech giant's largest-ever layoff. It underscores how AI is rapidly automating tasks in the digital ad industry and other business functions at Google.