Google Replaces Search and Ad Chief

On Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Prabhakar Raghavan, who oversees search and ads, is leaving. As head technologist, Raghavan will be replaced by Google veteran Nick Fox

“Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in his own career,” Pichai announced.

He will return to computer science as Google’s Chief Technologist after 12 years overseeing teams.

He will collaborate with me and Google leads to lead technological innovation and foster our tech excellence culture.

Gmail launched its initial AI products, Smart Reply and Smart Compose, under Raghavan.

Since then, Raghavan has launched AI Overviews, Circle to Search, Immersive View, and virtual try-on in Maps and Shopping.

Fox has “been instrumental in shaping Google’s AI product roadmap and collaborating closely with Prabhakar and his leadership team,” says Pichai.

Fox helped launch Google Fi and RCS communications.

In addition to the role change, Pichai stated that Sissie Hsiao’s Gemini app team will join Demis Hassabis’ Google DeepMind.

The CEO says that merging the teams “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.”

Pichai says the Google Assistant team will join Google’s platforms and devices unit to be closer to their products.

The adjustments announced today come as Google seeks AI leadership. They come amid various antitrust cases against the business.