Google CEO’s Memo: Indian-Origin Prabhakar appointed as Chief Technologist

Google is undergoing a significant shift in its leadership, and CEO Sundar Pichai recently shared the news with employees in a memo. The company is making some important changes that will impact its direction and operations.

Prabhakar Raghavan’s New Role according to his memo

One of the key changes involves Prabhakar Raghavan, who has been leading Google’s search division for many years. He will now take on a new role as Chief Technologist. In this position, Raghavan will focus on driving technological excellence within the company and guiding its strategic direction. He will collaborate closely with Pichai and other leaders to ensure that Google stays ahead in innovation.

Pichai emphasized Raghavan’s contributions, stating that after more than a decade of leadership roles, Raghavan is returning to his computer science roots. This change aims to harness his expertise to further enhance Google’s technological vision.

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To fill Raghavan’s former position, Google has appointed Nick Fox, who has extensive experience in the company’s search and ads sectors. Fox has been instrumental in launching products like Google Fi and RCS messaging. He will now manage not just the search and ads divisions but also the geo and commerce operations.

Organizational Changes in R&D

In addition to these leadership changes, Google is reorganizing its research and development teams. The Gemini app team, led by Sissie Hsaio, will now become part of Google DeepMind, which focuses on artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the Google Assistant team will shift to the platforms and devices division. Overall, these changes reflect Google’s commitment to innovation and strategic growth as it adapts to the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Here’s a paraphrased version of the memo from Google CEO Sundar Pichai to employees:

Hi Googlers,
It’s been an exciting few days for AI across our products. We saw NotebookLM with Audio Overviews go viral, added more ways to find information in Search and Lens, and launched a revamped Google Shopping for the AI era. We also just shared a big milestone in our work to help doctors use AI to detect diabetic retinopathy: 600,000 screenings and counting, and we’re expanding access to more people across India and Thailand. There’s a lot more to come.

AI moves faster than any technology before it. To keep increasing the pace of progress, we’ve been making shifts to simplify our structures along the way, including the creation of Google DeepMind and the joining of the Platforms & Devices teams. As a next step, Prabhakar and I have been thinking through how to structure our Knowledge & Information team for the Gemini era, and today we shared the following changes:
The Gemini app team led by Sissie will join Google DeepMind under Demis. As the name suggests, the Gemini app is the direct consumer interface to the latest and greatest Gemini models. Bringing the teams closer together will improve feedback loops, enable fast deployment of our new models in the Gemini app, make our post-training work proceed more efficiently and build on our great product momentum.
The Assistant teams focused on devices and home experiences will move to Platforms & Devices so they can sit closer to the product surfaces they’re building for and bring our AI-powered home initiatives into one team and focus on improving user experience.
In parallel to this, Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in his own career. After 12 years leading teams across Google, he’ll return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, he’ll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence. Nick Fox, a longtime Googler and member of Prabhakar’s leadership team, will be stepping up to lead K&I, which includes our Search, Ads, Geo, and Commerce products.
Prabhakar’s leadership journey at Google has been remarkable, spanning Research, Workspace, Ads, and K&I. He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past 1 billion users. Across K&I, Prabhakar and team have achieved significant growth and innovation: from launching AI Overviews, a groundbreaking advancement in Search that benefits hundreds of millions of users worldwide to introducing new search modalities like Circle to Search, video understanding, and “shop what you see” in Lens — all while improving core Search functionality. Maps and Shopping have transformed with AI-driven features like immersive view and virtual try-on. And in Ads, we’ve made real progress with AI-powered ad formats and streamlined campaign management, while continuing to innovate with Performance Max to empower millions of businesses.
I’m so grateful to Prabhakar for the strong foundation and leadership bench he’s built across K&I. That includes his incredible senior leaders and Nick who is ready to hit the ground running in his new role as SVP of K&I!
Over the past few years, Nick has been instrumental in shaping Google’s AI product roadmap and collaborating closely with Prabhakar and his leadership team on K&I’s strategy. And throughout his career, Nick has demonstrated leadership across nearly every facet of K&I, from Product and Design in Search and Assistant, to our Shopping, Travel, and Payments products. He was also a pioneering leader in Ads, where he helped establish a rigorous quality and user-focused approach that remains key to our success. Nick has launched innovative consumer products like Google Fi and spearheaded complex initiatives such as RCS messaging. I frequently turn to Nick to tackle our most challenging product questions and he consistently delivers progress with tenacity, speed, and optimism.
Congratulations to Nick, and a heartfelt thank you to Prabhakar for his leadership through numerous technology shifts and for building a strong foundation for the future.
– Sundar

Credit :Google

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