Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that artificial intelligence (AI) will not lead to mass job cuts at Google. In a recent interview in San Francisco, he explained that AI is helping engineers work faster and more effectively.
Rather than replacing workers, Pichai called AI an “accelerator” that will drive new ideas and increase the need for more employees.
Pichai admitted that Alphabet has had layoffs in recent years. In 2023, the company cut 12,000 jobs, and about 1,000 more in 2024. However, he said the layoffs in 2025 were smaller and more targeted.
This year, fewer than 100 employees were let go from Google Cloud, and a few hundred from the platforms and devices team.
Despite these cuts, Pichai said Alphabet plans to expand in areas like self-driving cars (Waymo), quantum computing, and YouTube.
He highlighted YouTube’s growth in India, which now has over 100 million channels, including 15,000 with more than one million subscribers.
When asked about concerns that AI could replace half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the next five years, Pichai said it’s important to discuss such fears openly.
He said no one can be sure if we are truly on the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI), but he remains hopeful about AI’s progress.
Pichai ended by saying it’s hard to predict the future of AI, but current and future projects make him “very optimistic.”
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