CEO of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas shared in a recent Big Technology Podcast that tech giants such as Google are in the run to retain their talented employees. Aravind recalled an instance where Google was very OK to offer a 4 times that is (300%) hike to the employees who received an offer from Perplexity AI.
However, the beneficiary employee was part of the Google search team, and was not involved in the AI Division. But despite of this fact, the company decided to take this crucial step to surge his offer and prevent him from leaving.
Informing that the employee Aravind Srinivas is an alumni of IIT Madras was thrilled bag such a great offer from the organization. But on the either side, Aravind expressed the threat of layoffs in the tech sector. He disclosed about what he heard that amid the layoffs the company targets those with higher salary and the ones who is less productive towards the company.
Layoff Practice:
In the initial month of 2024, layoffs have resulted in tens of thousands being unemployed, with the tech sector alone eliminating 32,000 positions.
In the preceding month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai cautioned employees to prepare for further job reductions, citing the necessity to make “tough choices” to generate capacity for investments.
Earlier, in 2023, Pichai announced his decision to layoff approximately 12,000 jobs which is around 6% of the global workforce. Sundar Pichai, in an open letter said, “I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.”
AI Digging For More Jobs
Where the emergence of AI was cultivating threat to the job opportunities, the coin seems to turn upside down. As AI is creating more job options than it destroys. The Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia, Sandip Patel gave a statement to the media that he has seen technology evolve over time.
He added that it also resulted in entirely new job categories like web design, data science, digital marketing and web publishing, which employ millions of people.
While 46% of Indian companies are presently engaged in training or reskilling employees to collaborate with automation and AI tools, there remains ample opportunity for further action in this regard.
However, surrounded with the evolution of tech, it is crucial and necessary for the tech industry and academic institutions to collaborate with governments worldwide in shaping the future talent pipeline for AI-related roles.
