Earlier this week, we hypothetically asked if AI is coming for your job. Our answer was “quite possibly.” The latest reports from tech giant Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) proved our answer surprisingly prescient. Meanwhile, shareholders were pleased with the plan to drop more employees and sent shares up over 1.5% in Thursday morning’s trading.
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While we asked if AI might be coming for your job, Google made it clear that it was. CEO Sundar Pichai said as much, noting that “some teams” would be required to “eliminate roles” so that they could, ultimately, “create the capacity” to invest in new and promising technologies like artificial intelligence. That will undoubtedly come as a chilling projection, particularly to the survivors of Google’s last round of layoffs. Those former employees, too, found their jobs cut and replaced with the new technology financed by previous job cuts.
A Reverse Hiring Spree
Back in 2020, many tech companies saw an opportunity. With remote work largely the law of the land due to pandemic restrictions placed by government mandate, there was an opportunity to pick up coders and the like who could readily work remotely and still produce. Tech companies went on hiring binges and picked up what they could, ramping up development. Now, we’re coming to the end of that cycle, and suddenly, all those valuable employees are becoming liabilities to the overall system.
There was at least one note Alphabet employees could be thankful for, though; an internal memo revealed that the cuts would not be as pronounced as the ones seen in 2023.
Are Google Shares a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 28 Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 54.49% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOGL price target of $156.38 per share implies 9.09% upside potential.
