Google on Tuesday announced eliminating "a few hundred" positions from its global advertising team, amid a push to use artificial intelligence for efficiency and creativity.
According to Google, job cuts to its "large customer" sales team will result in better support for small and medium-sized businesses advertising on Google's platform.
The company expected expanding small business ad teams at Google to increase hiring this year.
The topic of generative AI, which is upending several industries, including advertising, was left out by Google.
New artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist retailers in "personalising online shopping, modernising operations, and transforming in-store technology rollouts" were unveiled by Google's cloud computing unit last week.
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According to data published by Google, almost 80% of US merchants believe implementing generative AI into their operations is urgently necessary.
"In only a year, generative AI has morphed from a barely recognized concept to one of the fastest-moving capabilities in all of technology and a critical part of many retailers' agendas," Google Cloud strategic industries vice president Carrie Tharp said in a release.
New Google AI tools enabled retailers to easily embed virtual agents in websites or mobile apps to provide personalized help and recommendations to shoppers, according to a release.
The company said that Google AI is also being put to work analyzing product images and producing product descriptions or terms suited to optimize discovery in online searches.
In the face of inflation and rising interest rates, Google laid off around 12,000 people this time last year, about six percent of its workforce.
