What you need to know
- In an internal memo sent to all Google workers, the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai detailed Google’s seven goals for 2024.
- The list includes developing artificial intelligence, and unsurprisingly, growing as a company.
- This comes as Google has laid off thousands of employees, and Pichai has told his team to expect more to come.
Large companies try to move as quietly as possible, especially those in the technology industry. But leaks are inevitable, which is why we often know a lot about new products and services before they officially debut. Even with that being said, it’s rare that we get a glimpse into a company’s internal goals early into a year.
That’s exactly what happened this week, as Google’s seven goals for 2024 were leaked to The Verge. In a memo sent out to all employees, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai detailed his roadmap for 2024. The list isn’t exactly surprising, but it does confirm a lot of what we already expected from Google in 2024, like a focus on artificial intelligence.
Here’s the full list, as shared by The Verge (via Android Police):
- Deliver the world’s most advanced, safe, and responsible Al.
- Improve knowledge, learning, creativity, and productivity.
- Build the most helpful personal computing platforms and devices.
- Enable organizations and developers to innovate on Google Cloud.
- Provide the world’s most trusted products and platforms.
- Build a Google that’s extraordinary for Googlers and the world.
- Improve company velocity, efficiency, and productivity, and deliver durable cost savings.
The timing of this leak is interesting because it comes as Google faces yet another inflection point. Almost a year to the day after the company laid off 12,000 workers in 2023, Google cut more jobs over the last two weeks. The exact number isn’t known, but it’s in the thousands. The layoffs have stretched across multiple teams in 2024, such as the hardware AR and ad sales units.
More importantly, Pichai told the company to expect more layoffs throughout the year. This contrasts with the Google CEO’s goals for 2024, at least in a way. He says that one goal is to “build a Google that’s extraordinary for Googlers,” but the continual job cuts have led current and former employees to blast the company. However, the last goal definitely fits in line with Google’s layoffs.
Beyond these points, artificial intelligence is unsurprisingly a focus for Google heading into 2024. Samsung’s recent launch of the Galaxy S24 series of flagship phones included a ton of AI features, and Google was at the heart of many of them. Google is also clearly focused on developing Gemini, its suite of AI models, and Bard, its AI-enabled chatbot. According to Pichai’s vision for 2024, more of that will continue.
The rest of Google’s goals for 2024 center around the typical goals for a consumer tech giant, like developing new products and growing as a company. We’ll be curious to see how Google — and its employees — respond to these goals, considering the cost-cutting measures and layoffs that are simultaneously taking place.