Google LLC is laying off employees at the business units that develop its knowledge and information products, consumer hardware and Google Assistant service.

Word of the restructuring first emerged late Wednesday. Today, Google told The Verge that it’s letting go a “few hundred” workers at each of the affected business units. The publication estimates that the company could be axing more than 1,000 roles across the divisions. Indeed, the union for Google owner Alphabet Inc. told The Information today that more than 1,000 people were affected, constituting the largest round of cuts since January 2023.

“We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” Google said in a statement. “To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, and to align their resources to their biggest product priorities.”

The workforce reduction at the Google Assistant unit follows a recent shift in the group’s development roadmap. Last year, the search giant announced plans to release a new version of Google Assistant that will be based on Bard, its ChatGPT rival. Bard, in turn, is also set to receive a major upgrade: Google is currently retooling the chatbot to use its latest Gemini series of large language models.

The company told Semafor today that the restructuring will advance the effort to enhance Google Assistant. Separately, it announced plans to phase out 17 of the voice assistant’s features, citing limited adoption. The affected features span a variety of use cases ranging from playing audiobooks to setting alarms.

Google’s consumer hardware unit, the second division affected by the job cuts, is also undergoing major changes. The search giant is reportedly in the process of overhauling the division’s organizational structure.

Currently, the division includes three teams that each manage a different product line, namely the Pixel device series, the Nest smart home portfolio and Fitbit smartwatches. The search giant is reportedly switching the division to a “functional” organizational structure as part of the restructuring. That means the teams in Google’s consumer hardware unit won’t be responsible for entire product lines, but rather specific tasks such as device design and software development.

Most of the newly disclosed layoffs will affect the unit’s 1P AR Hardware team, which develops augmented reality products. The move is not entirely unexpected. Last July, The Verge reported that Google has canceled Project Iris, an internal effort to develop an augmented reality headset with a design inspired by ski goggles.

Google stressed that “while we are making changes to our 1P AR hardware team, Google continues to be deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products, and product partnerships.”

The restructuring also affects the Fitbit smartwatch team. Fitbit became part of Google in 2019 through a $2.1 billion acquisition. The smartwatch maker’s co-founders, James Park and Eric Friedman, are said to be leaving the search giant along with a number of other executives who helped oversee the product line.

The layoffs come as Google is reportedly gearing up for another major restructuring initiative. Last month, The Information cited sources as saying that the search giant is planning to reorganize its 30,000-person ad sales group. The report didn’t specify whether Google plans to make layoffs as part of the move, but did detail that some employees will be reassigned to new teams.

Photo: Google