With Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Twitter also cutting their workforces, Google’s decision to lay off 12,000 employees comes amid a major churn in the tech sector.

Sundar Pichai’s full email to his employees is given below

Googlers,

I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.

This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

Over the past two years, we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.

I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI. To fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions.

By the Googlers who are leaving us: Thank you for working so hard to help people and businesses everywhere. Your contributions have been invaluable and we are grateful for them.

While this transition won’t be easy, we’re going to support employees as they look for their next opportunity.

In the US:

• We’ll pay employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days).
• We’ll also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks’ salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, and accelerate at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting.
• We’ll pay 2022 bonuses and the remaining vacation time.
• We’ll be offering 6 months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected.
• Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices.

As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, re-engineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.

Being constrained in some areas allows us to bet big on others. Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago led to groundbreaking advances across our businesses and the whole industry.

Thanks to those early investments, Google’s products are better than ever. And we’re getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers, and businesses, too. We have a substantial opportunity in front of us with AI across our products and are prepared to approach it boldly and responsibly.

All this work is a continuation of the “healthy disregard for the impossible” that’s been core to our culture from the beginning. When I look around Google today, I see the same spirit and energy driving our efforts. That’s why I remain optimistic about our ability to deliver on our mission, even on our toughest days. Today is certainly one of them.

I’m sure you have many questions about how we’ll move forward. We’ll be organizing a town hall on Monday. Check your calendar for details. Until then, please take good care of yourselves as you absorb this difficult news. As part of that, if you are just starting your work day, please feel free to work from home today.

Sundar

Big Announcement by Google

Google has announced a new technology for doctors. This technology will scan the doctor’s handwriting and tell users what the doctor has written in the prescription. To use this feature, users have to click a photo of the prescription and upload the photo of the prescription on Google Lens. Google also claims to make search result pages multilingual. The new technology has started in Hindi and in the coming year, will be expanded to other Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Bengali 

On this Professor Govindan Rangarajan, Director of the Indian Institute of Science said – “India’s language landscape is unique, in every hundred kilometers its dialects and accents often change, and multiple languages are spoken in the same district. And that’s why we’re delighted to collaborate with Google on Project Vani, an effort that is fundamental to creating inclusive AI technology that truly reflects India’s rich diversity of languages and speech.”

At this event, Google also announced the DigiLocker feature for Android phone users. DigiLocker is a virtual locker that stored all the important documents digitally in a paperless format. All documents saved in DigiLocker will be completely valid. In addition to that, Google Pay announced advanced security features for digital payments. With this feature, users will be able to know about their transactions through voice. 

Google also announced a “Search in Video” feature that allows you to search for anything in a video. All you have to do is type your query on YouTube within the video and Google will show you that part directly.  In 2023, the “Search in Video” feature on YouTube will be available. YouTube will allow educational channels to offer free or paid courses for their viewers. Viewers who purchase the courses will be able to watch the ad-free videos.

Sundar Pichai tweeted on the Google for India event and wrote – “So great to be back in India! At #GoogleForIndia, we introduced a multimodal AI model that covers 100+ Indian languages, ML-powered bilingual search results pages (launching in India first), and support for a new center for responsible AI @iitmadras+ more.

After the event, Sundar Pichai met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While sharing a photo with his Prime Minister on Twitter, he wrote – Thank you for a great meeting today PM @narendramodi. Inspiring to see the rapid pace of technological change under your leadership. Look forward to continuing our strong

During this worsen condition, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, announced to help India with Rs. 135 crore. He mentioned his heartfelt feelings on Twitter, “Devastated to see the worsening Covid crisis in India. Google & Googlers are providing Rs 135 Crore in funding to @GiveIndia,@UNICEF for medical supplies, orgs supporting high-risk communities, and grants to help spread critical information.

According to the official blog, it is mentioned that this 135 crore INR help includes two grants from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, totaling 20 Crore INR. The first is to GiveIndia to provide cash assistance to families hit hardest by the crisis to help with their everyday expenses. The second will go to UNICEF to help get urgent medical supplies, including oxygen and testing equipment, to where it’s needed most in India.

Google is also helping through its core information products like Search and Maps, YouTube, and Ads. This includes information on where to get testing and vaccines; so far, Maps and Search surface thousands of vaccine sites.

In a blog, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, announced new efforts, including opening up enrollment for the latest career certificates, expanding employer consortium, and introduce new tools to improve the job search.

Google has started enrollments for Google Career Certificates, in the fields of Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience (UX) Design. A new Associate Android Developer Certification is also there for entry-level jobs in Android development. We’re also providing 100,000 scholarships globally, for Career Certificates in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In India, we’re working to make certificates more accessible and launch an employer consortium, wrote Sundar Pichai.

Last year, Google also announced a $10-billion fund for Google for India Digitization to help accelerate India’s digital economy.

Bezos has announced that Andy Jessy will be replaced by Amazon CEO. Andy currently heads Amazon Web services

Jeff Bezos has said in a letter to employees of his company that “I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.”

He also shared the long journey of Amazon, as it was just an idea that has grown with the invention. He said, “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”

Read the Full Letter of Jeff Bezos Written to his Employees here

After his announcement, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, wished him in a tweet. Pichai mentioned, “Congrats @JeffBezos, best wishes for Day 1 and Earth fund. Congrats @ajassyon your new role!

Satya Nadela, CEO of Microsoft also congratulated Jeff Bezos and Andy Jessie in a tweet. He wrote, “Congratulations to@JeffBezos and @ajassy on your new roles. A well-deserved recognition of what you have accomplished.