According to CNBC reports, Google is reorganizing the reporting structure of its virtual assistant Assistant department to focus more on the company’s new artificial intelligence chat technology Bard.
In a memo to employees on Wednesday titled “Changes to the Assistant and Bard Team,” Google vice president and head of the Google Assistant business unit, Sissie Hsiao, announced changes to the organization that show the department takes Bard seriously.
Jianchang “JC” Mao, Google’s vice president of Assistant engineering, who reports directly to Hsiao, will leave the company for personal reasons, the memo said. Mao “helped shape the Assistant we have today,” Hsiao wrote in the memo.
Mao will be replaced by Peeyush Ranjan, a 16-year Google veteran who most recently served as vice president of Google’s business organization, responsible for payments.
“As the Bard team continues this work, we want to ensure we continue to support and execute on future opportunities. This year, more than ever, we are focused on delivering impactful delivery to our users,” Hsiao said in an email.
Google Assistant is an artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant software application and language processing software, similar to Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa. It’s commonly used in the form of voice recognition on mobile and home devices, including its Pixel smartphones and Nest smart speakers and devices. It is also used in smart watches, smart displays, TVs and in vehicles via the Android Auto platform.
The new leadership change suggests that the virtual assistant division may plan to integrate Bard technology into similar products in the future.
Last week, Google rolled out its ChatGPT competitor, Bard, to the public, calling it “an experiment” with testing starting in the US and UK.
In Wednesday’s change, Amar Subramanya, Google’s vice president of engineering for the Assistant, will lead the engineering efforts of the Bard team, and Trevor Strohman, who previously led Bard’s engineering efforts, will continue to serve as Bard’s “regional technology lead,” reporting to Hsiao.
However, how this technology will be used to generate revenue remains a big question. Executives have hinted at it as a search product, but Bard leaders have recently tried to downplay that use case to employees.
