Google restructures voice assistant team resulting in another layoff

Google has restructured its voice assistant team to meet the expectations, unfortunately resulting in another layoff. The company has not revealed the exact number of affected employees. However, internal documents suggest the number of those individual contributors to be around 20.

According to Insider, employees who were working as independent contributors on Google’s Assistant team received notifications on Monday. It informed them about their roles being eliminated.

With the announcement of Assistant with Bard, also some employees from the Google Bard team were transferred to the Assistant team. But interestingly, soon after their transfer, Google lays them off from the assistant team. Of particular note is that one of the affected employees is currently on maternity leave, and another is battling cancer.

The 60-day period to find new roles inside Google to avoid layoff

Those impacted by these recent layoffs have been given a 60-day period to find new roles within the company. Otherwise, they will have to face termination. Google appears to be implementing these layoffs as part of the company’s strategic business objectives.

A spokesperson for Google provided a statement, saying, “In order to optimize our team structures around our highest priorities, we’ve reorganized our team to best support our strategic business objectives.”

This latest round of layoffs follows Google’s earlier announcement of a restructuring plan this year. It included the layoff of 12,000 employees and strategic cuts across different divisions. These divisions include Google News and its health-focused subsidiary, Verily. The recent layoffs in the voice assistant team are another example of Google’s ongoing efforts to streamline its operations and refocus its workforce on key business goals. 

The layoff within Google’s voice assistant team including the previous one is a reminder of the challenges that tech companies sometimes face as they adapt to changing market conditions and attempt to stay competitive in this rapidly growing industry.