Google Eliminates 1,000+ Jobs in Voice Assistance and Hardware Teams as Fitbit Founders Depart

Google is set to lay off more than 1,000 employees across various divisions, including engineering and services, as announced late Wednesday. This restructuring affects teams focused on voice-activated technology, particularly the Google Assistant within the knowledge and information product sector, as well as the Devices and Services Product Area (DSPA) team responsible for managing Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit products.

As of September 30, 2023, Google employed 182,000 individuals. The company has acknowledged the layoffs but framed them as part of broader organizational changes aimed at enhancing efficiency and aligning resources with key product priorities. “To effectively position ourselves for future opportunities, various teams have made adjustments throughout the second half of 2023 to improve efficiency and focus on major product goals. Some teams will continue making such organizational changes, including role eliminations globally,” stated a Google spokesperson.

The Alphabet Workers Union expressed concern on X, labeling the layoffs as “needless” and criticizing the company for continuing to eliminate positions while generating significant profits.

In addition to these layoffs, Google has scaled back its augmented reality (AR) hardware team and will collaborate with external manufacturers, as reported by 9to5Google. This shift means that Google will consolidate into a single core hardware engineering team instead of maintaining separate teams for Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest.

Notably, the restructuring includes the departure of Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, who played essential roles in integrating Fitbit into Google’s product ecosystem. Google completed its acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion in 2019, with the deal finalized in 2021 after a two-year regulatory approval process. Since then, Google has worked to incorporate Fitbit devices into its brand offerings, such as prompting Fitbit users to transition to Google accounts last year.

Additionally, staff reductions have also affected the Google Assistant team, according to reports from Semafor. The company has been integrating AI-driven features into Google Assistant through Bard, aiming to expand its functionality beyond voice interaction. At the Pixel event in October, Google announced that Assistant could access applications like Gmail and Drive to answer queries about specific emails and documents.

This latest company-wide layoff follows a year of rolling reductions across various teams, including Waze in June, the recruiting team in September, and the news division in October. In January 2023, Google had already reduced its workforce by approximately 12,000 positions, accounting for 6% of its total employees.

Update 1/11/24, 3:48 PM ET: According to The Information, the union representing Alphabet workers indicated that the latest layoffs have impacted over 1,000 employees, marking the largest round of cuts since January 2023.