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Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian says AI will create opportunities, not replace tech jobs
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian says AI will empower workers, not replace them, helping boost productivity and create new opportunities in tech.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has rejected the growing fear that artificial intelligence will wipe out technology jobs, saying instead that the technology will empower workers to achieve more than ever before.
Speaking in an interview with tech newsletter Big Technology, Kurian said AI should be seen as an enabler, not a replacement.
“I think there is definitely a middle ground,” Kurian said, countering widespread predictions of mass automation. He added that AI’s purpose is to enhance human capabilities rather than to replace people outright.
Kurian pointed to Google’s Customer Engagement Suite — a range of AI-powered customer service tools launched last year — as a real-world example. According to him, despite early client concerns that AI might lead to job losses, “almost none of our clients have let anyone go.”
Expanding capabilities, not cutting staff
Kurian explained that when Google rolled out the suite, some companies worried that AI would make their customer service agents redundant. However, the opposite has happened. The AI tools are handling tasks that were previously ignored, such as minor customer queries that did not justify human attention.
He stressed that the technology is helping businesses engage with customers in ways that were not possible before, improving both productivity and service quality.
Boost in productivity among engineers
Kurian’s view aligns with that of Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who highlighted similar trends earlier this year. During a June appearance on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Pichai revealed that Google’s engineers have experienced a 10 per cent productivity increase thanks to AI tools. The company measures this improvement through additional hours of engineering capacity created by AI-powered assistance.
Rather than reducing staff, Pichai said Google intends to hire more engineers in the coming year, noting that “the opportunity space of what we can do is expanding.” He believes AI will remove repetitive work and free engineers to focus on creative and strategic projects.
The numbers behind the optimism
The data backs this optimism. During Alphabet’s most recent earnings call, Pichai shared that more than 30 per cent of Google’s new code is now generated by AI — up from 25 per cent in October. The trend, he suggested, points not to a shrinking workforce, but to a more capable and efficient one, where humans and AI collaborate to push the boundaries of innovation.
