“I expect…” Google CEO Sundar Pichai finally breaks silence on whether AI will take away 1,80,000 jobs

Sundar Pichai

Will AI wipe out thousands of jobs at Google? According to CEO Sundar Pichai, the answer — at least for now — is no.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg in San Francisco, Pichai addressed the growing concern that artificial intelligence could eventually make a large chunk of Google’s 1,80,000 employees redundant. Instead of dodging the question, Pichai responded directly: “I expect we will grow from our current engineering phase even into next year.”

Pichai believes AI is not here to replace people, but to empower them. He described the technology as an “accelerator,” saying it helps engineers work more efficiently by removing repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on more important problems. In fact, he said the increased productivity could lead to more hiring — not less — as Google pushes to develop new products.

To be fair, layoffs haven’t been absent at Google. The company let go of over 12,000 workers in 2023 and at least 1,000 more last year. But in 2025, the cuts have been smaller and more targeted, affecting fewer than 100 roles in the cloud team and a few hundred more in the devices unit.

Pichai also pointed to Alphabet’s growing ventures — like Waymo’s self-driving cars, quantum computing, and YouTube’s booming reach in markets like India — as signs that innovation is still alive and kicking.

Still, he acknowledged the concerns. When asked about predictions that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs, he said, “I respect that… it’s important to voice those concerns and debate them.”

On the future of AI, and whether we’ll ever see machines as smart as humans, Pichai was cautious but hopeful: “There’s a lot of forward progress… but I don’t think anyone can say for sure.”