Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads

Google is making a big change to company leadership. In a memo to staff posted on Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Prabhakar Raghavan, the senior vice president in charge of search, ads, and other important segments, will now take on the role of chief technologist.

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

Raghavan has been in charge of ads and commerce since 2018 and was promoted to the head of Google Search and Assistant in 2020. Nick Fox, who was part of Raghavan’s leadership team, will replace Raghavan, leading Google’s Search, ads, geo, and commerce divisions. Fox has helped launch products like Google Fi and RCS messaging, according to Pichai.

Google is shuffling some of its other teams around as well. The division in charge of Google’s Gemini app, led by Sissie Hsaio, will join Google DeepMind under CEO Demis Hassabis. The Google Assistant team will also become part of Google’s platforms and devices team.

The shift comes at a pivotal time for Google, which has worked to establish itself as a major player in AI. At the same time, Google also faces the possibility that the US government break up the company after declaring its search business a monopoly.