Google has officially clarified that it has no plans to replace its advertising sales staff with AI.
Philipp Schindler, Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, emphasized that the recent organizational restructuring was aimed at improving the efficiency of its services.
He further emphasized that the continuous development of new AI solutions is to enable its customers to grow and deliver a return on their investments at scale.
What Google says. Speaking on Alphabet’s 2023 Q4 earnings call, Schindler said:
“I want to be clear that when we restructure, there is always an opportunity to be more efficient and smarter in the way we serve and grow our customers.” “We’re not restructuring because AI is eliminating the roles that are important here. But we see significant opportunities here with our AI-driven solution to really deliver incredible ROI at scale, and that’s why we’re doing some of these adjustments”. “So I see sales force intensity as a stronger focus going forward.”
Why we care Advertisers have raised concerns about communication problems with Google staff, fearing it will worsen if AI replaces human channels. Google, however, denied any intention to replace human communication channels with advertisers using AI.
Mass layoffs. Google made headlines by laying off 12,000 employees last year, a surprising move given the company’s record profits. On top of that, Google recently announced plans to cut hundreds more roles, specifically within its advertising sales division, earlier this month. The mass layoffs have proved costly for Google, with the company confirming that it spent $2.1 billion on severance and other expenses last year alone.
AI Takeover Rumors. The mass layoffs led to speculation about the possible replacement of staff by AI, particularly within Google’s Global Customer Solutions (GCS) team, which is responsible for serving all customers from large international companies to small businesses . Contrary to such speculation, Schindler confirmed that GCS is indeed Google’s fastest-growing channel, and therefore Google is making adjustments to ensure that more resources can be allocated to “dynamically deliver the right treatment for each customer”.
New AI offers. Google previously spoke to Search Engine Land about how it’s testing new AI capabilities to give advertisers more support. Specifically, it tested new features in the Ads Help Center to help customers resolve issues more efficiently. Importantly, these AI-powered features are not meant to replace staff; instead, they are designed to provide additional support.
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deep dive Read our full Google Q4 2023 earnings report to learn more.
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