Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces big change to the company’s leadership; read his memo to Googlers

Google has announced a major leadership reshuffle. In a memo to employees, also posted online, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company’s long-time search head Prabhakar Raghavan will transition to the role of Chief Technologist . Other than search, the senior vice president Raghavan is in charge of ads and some other important segments.

Raghavan, who has been instrumental in Google’s growth over the past decade, will now focus on fostering a culture of technological excellence and providing strategic technical direction.He will work closely with Pichai and other Google executives to ensure the company remains at the forefront of innovation.

“Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in his own career,” Pichai wrote. “After 12 years leading teams across Google, he’ll return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, he’ll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence.”

To fill Raghavan’s shoes, Google has appointed Nick Fox, a seasoned leader within the company’s search and ads division . Fox, who has played a pivotal role in the development of products like Google Fi and RCS messaging, will now oversee Google’s Search, ads, geo, and commerce operations.

In addition to these executive changes, Google is also reorganizing some of its research and development teams. The Gemini app team, led by Sissie Hsaio, will now be integrated into Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research subsidiary. Meanwhile, the Google Assistant team will become part of Google’s platforms and devices division.

Here’s the memo Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent to Google employees:

It’s been an exciting few days for AI across our products. We saw NotebookLM with Audio Overviews go viral, added more ways to find information in Search and Lens, and launched a revamped Google Shopping for the AI era. We also just shared a big milestone in our work to help doctors use AI to detect diabetic retinopathy: 600,000 screenings and counting, and we’re expanding access to more people across India and Thailand. There’s a lot more to come.

AI moves faster than any technology before it. To keep increasing the pace of progress, we’ve been making shifts to simplify our structures along the way, including the creation of Google DeepMind and the joining of the Platforms & Devices teams. As a next step, Prabhakar and I have been thinking through how to structure our Knowledge & Information team for the Gemini era, and today we shared the following changes:

The Gemini app team led by Sissie will join Google DeepMind under Demis. As the name suggests, the Gemini app is the direct consumer interface to the latest and greatest Gemini models. Bringing the teams closer together 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.

The Assistant teams focused on devices and home experiences will move to Platforms & Devices so they can sit closer to the product surfaces they’re building for and bring our AI-powered home initiatives into one team and focus on improving user experience.

In parallel to this, Prabhakar has decided it’s time to make a big leap in his own career. After 12 years leading teams across Google, he’ll return to his computer science roots and take on the role of Chief Technologist, Google. In this role, he’ll partner closely with me and Google leads to provide technical direction and leadership and grow our culture of tech excellence. Nick Fox, a longtime Googler and member of Prabhakar’s leadership team, will be stepping up to lead K&I, which includes our Search, Ads, Geo, and Commerce products.

Prabhakar’s leadership journey at Google has been remarkable, spanning Research, Workspace, Ads, and K&I. He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past 1 billion users. Across K&I, Prabhakar and team have achieved significant growth and innovation: from launching AI Overviews, a groundbreaking advancement in Search that benefits hundreds of millions of users worldwide to introducing new search modalities like Circle to Search, video understanding, and “shop what you see” in Lens — all while improving core Search functionality. Maps and Shopping have transformed with AI-driven features like immersive view and virtual try-on. And in Ads, we’ve made real progress with AI-powered ad formats and streamlined campaign management, while continuing to innovate with Performance Max to empower millions of businesses.

I’m so grateful to Prabhakar for the strong foundation and leadership bench he’s built across K&I. That includes his incredible senior leaders and Nick who is ready to hit the ground running in his new role as SVP of K&I!

Over the past few years, Nick has been instrumental in shaping Google’s AI product roadmap and collaborating closely with Prabhakar and his leadership team on K&I’s strategy. And throughout his career, Nick has demonstrated leadership across nearly every facet of K&I, from Product and Design in Search and Assistant, to our Shopping, Travel, and Payments products. He was also a pioneering leader in Ads, where he helped establish a rigorous quality and user-focused approach that remains key to our success. Nick has launched innovative consumer products like Google Fi and spearheaded complex initiatives such as RCS messaging. I frequently turn to Nick to tackle our most challenging product questions and he consistently delivers progress with tenacity, speed, and optimism.

Congratulations to Nick, and a heartfelt thank you to Prabhakar for his leadership through numerous technology shifts and for building a strong foundation for the future.