YouTube CEO Neal Mohan informed staffers Wednesday that the company will offer voluntary buyouts and severance packages for employees who decide to exit on their own.
The decision comes after back-to-back years of YouTube being on top of the streaming industry. Moving forward Mohan said the company will invest in AI more intentionally, deliberately applying it to viewer products, creator and community products and subscriptions.
Mohan will be restructuring the company into the three separate product organizations, each reporting directly to the CEO. The changes will go into effect Nov. 5, but he said there will no layoffs as part of the reorganization. Looking ahead, Mohan wants to focus on AI integration.
“Looking to the future, the next frontier for YouTube is AI, which has the potential to transform every part of the platform,” Mohan wrote in a Wednesday memo to staff. “We need to set ourselves up to make the most of this opportunity.”
As a result the CEO offered buyouts and severance packages to employees, who wished to leave the company on their own accord.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time at YouTube and many opportunities and challenges lie ahead. But we also understand some of you may be ready for a new challenge, so we’ve decided now is the right time to offer a Voluntary Exit Program,” he wrote. “Starting today, eligible U.S. YouTubers in my direct-reporting org have the ability to voluntarily leave with a severance package.”
Alphabet, YouTube’s parent company, reported record earnings Wednesday, achieving its first-ever $100 billion quarter. The company credited much of their increase in revenue to search and the Google Cloud, including increased investment in AI. AI Overviews as well as an AI Mode have been added to Google Search. As for Google Cloud, AI Infrastructure and Generative AI Solutions have been added to that offering, which ended the quarter with $155 billion in backlog.
YouTube is not the only company reorganizing their workforce with a heightened emphasis on AI. Amazon cut 14,000 jobs this week in order to meet the next generation of AI, saying the tech giant needs to move faster to keep up.
