Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Thursday that Prabhakar Raghavan, the company's head of search engine and advertising products, will be leaving his post. Raghavan will be replaced as chief engineer by longtime Google executive Nick Fox.
“Prabhakar has decided that the time is right to take a major leap forward in his career,” Pichai said in a statement. “After 12 years leading teams across Google, he will return to his roots in computer science and take on the role of chief engineer at Google. In this role, he will work closely with me and Google leadership. Together, we will provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of technical excellence.”
Raghavan led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose, the email service's first AI products. Since then, Raghavan has overseen the launch of AI Overview and Circle to Search, in addition to AI features in Maps and Shopping, such as immersive view and virtual try-on.
Pichai said Fox “has been instrumental in shaping Google's AI product roadmap and has worked closely with Prabhakar and his management team.”
Fox has helped launch products like Google Fi and RCS Messaging.
In addition to the role change, Pichai announced that the Gemini Apps team, led by Sissy Hsiao, will join Google DeepMind, led by Demis Hassabis.
The executive said that merging the two teams will “improve feedback loops, enable faster deployment of new models in the Gemini app, make post-training more efficient, and create great momentum for the product.” “We will be able to build this,'' he wrote.
The Google Assistant team will also be part of Google's Platforms and Devices team, allowing them to get closer to the products they develop, Pichai said.
The changes announced today come as Google works to establish itself as a leader in AI. This is also because the company is facing multiple antitrust lawsuits.