Alphabet's subsidiary Google announced on Wednesday (January 10th) local time that as the tech giant continues to cut costs, the company will continue to take layoff measures, affecting multiple teams.
Google has announced that its voice assistant team will lay off hundreds of people, the hardware teams responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit will lay off hundreds of people, the majority of the augmented reality (AR) team will be laid off, and hundreds of positions in Google's central engineering team will also be affected. However, a Google spokesperson did not specify the number of affected positions.
Of note in this wave of layoffs is that James Park and Eric Friedman, co founders of Fitbit, a smart bracelet company under Google, will also leave the company.
In 2021, Google acquired Fitbit, a health and fitness bracelet company, for $2.1 billion. However, after that, Google continued to launch similar products, the Pixel Watch smartwatch, aimed at competing with the Apple Watch.
A Google spokesperson stated in a statement, "Throughout the second half of 2023, some of our teams have made changes to improve efficiency and work efficiency, combining their resources with their best products. Some teams are continuing such organizational changes, including layoffs worldwide."
In January 2023, Alphabet announced the layoffs of 12000 people, equivalent to 6% of its global workforce. Since then, the wave of layoffs in Silicon Valley has shown no signs of stopping.
On Wednesday local time, Amazon also announced that it will lay off hundreds of employees in Prime Video and MGM Studios.
Mike Hopkins, head of business at Amazon Prime and Studios, said, "The company has identified opportunities to reduce or stop investments in certain areas, while seeking to increase spending on some of the most impactful content and product projects."
Nowadays, more and more technology companies are heavily betting on generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Last year, Google announced plans to add artificial intelligence capabilities to its virtual assistant, which can help people plan their travels or check emails, as well as engage in subsequent conversations.