Google announced on Wednesday that it is cutting off hundreds of employees In Assistant, Hardware, and Engineering Teams, Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, as it continues to cut expenses.
Google announced the layoff of hundreds of individuals at its Voice Assistant unit and a few hundred roles in the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, with most people in the augmented reality (AR) team being let go. According to the business, hundreds of positions in the search giant's central engineering staff are also affected.
Google paid $2.1 billion acquiring the health and fitness tracking business Fitbit in 2021, but it has continued to release new versions of its Pixel Watch, a product that competes with some of Fitbit's devices and the Apple Watch.
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"Throughout the second half of 2023, several of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities. Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally," a spokesperson for Google told Reuters in a statement.
The number of affected roles was not specified. How many individuals work on the Google Assistant software and other teams is unclear.
Following the success of OpenAI's ChatGPT, corporations such as Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Google are betting on the expanding use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Google unveiled ambitions to add creative AI capabilities to its virtual assistant last year. AI would enable the assistant to help individuals plan a trip or catch up on emails before asking follow-up questions.
Google disclosed intentions to eliminate 6% of its global workforce in January 2023.
