Google is laying off hundreds of employees from its ad sales department

This was the outcome that Silicon Valley feared. Google on Tuesday confirmed layoffs of several hundred people within its global ad sales team, as a growing number of administrative and creative tasks are automated using artificial intelligence (AI). “Every year, we follow a rigorous process to build our team to best serve our advertising clients (…). In this context, several hundred jobs are being eliminated around the world“, announced a spokesman for the Internet giant. “Affected employees will be able to apply for open positions within the team or elsewhere at GoogleHe explained. This information was first reported by Business Insider.

The group in California confirmed that changes to this service will allow it to provide better support to small and medium-sized companies, while supporting more customers, while the rest of the employees will focus on customers from large companies. Google also plans to create new roles and increase hiring this year, signaling a bigger shift than during the pandemic. The online search giant did not mention generative AI (automated production of diverse content), which is disrupting many sectors, including the advertising sector.

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Artificial Intelligence automates the creation process

Last week, Google Cloud announced new AI and generative AI solutions.To help retailers personalize online purchasing, modernize processes and transform the deployment of new technologies in stores», according to a press release issued by the Remote Computing Branch. New tools allow brands to create virtual agents able to interact with consumers on websites and mobile apps, in a more flexible and complex way than chatbots without generative AI.

This technology, which has ignited Silicon Valley and beyond over the past year, is also accelerating and automating the innovation process. One of Google Cloud's new tools,Generative AI to create and analyze product images and associated descriptive text, and automatically generate content such as engaging product descriptions, product metadata, and SEO-friendly language», confirms the press release. Google laid off about 12,000 people in January 2023 (6% of its workforce) in the face of inflation and high interest rates, which means less advertiser spending. The internet giant has since been forced to invest heavily in generative artificial intelligence.