This past quarter, Google quietly offered thousands of employees a curious deal: take 14 weeks’ severance and walk away. No hard feelings. No drama. Just a polite nudge out the door and a cheque to soften the landing.
It wasn’t a performance issue. Or a corporate scandal. It was something much simpler: they just didn’t need as many of us anymore.
By “us,” I mean knowledge workers. Marketers. Strategists. PMs. Folks who used to sit at the cool corporate table, buzzing with ideas, plans, roadmaps, and metrics that may or may not have moved the needle.
Except now, the needle is being moved by someone—or something—else.
AI isn’t coming. It’s here. And companies like Google aren’t just adapting. They’re reorganising.
The Age of the Optional Human
Let’s be clear. The layoffs in tech are no longer about bloated pandemic hiring or vague “macroeconomic headwinds.” This is structural. Google, a company sitting on $110 billion in cash, doesn’t need to trim fat. They’re cutting muscle. And they’re doing it because machines are learning how to do the work faster, cheaper, and at greater scale.
Creative? Check. Generative AI can produce hundreds of ad variations in seconds.
Data analysis? Check. Algorithms don’t sleep or schedule meetings to discuss dashboards.
Content strategy? Let’s just say ChatGPT is now on the brainstorm invite list.
In marketing, we used to pride ourselves on being the soul of the business. The voice. The human connection. But increasingly, the value chain is being automated from the inside out. What used to be a 12-person content team is now a prompt engineer and a subscription to Jasper.
What the “Pay-to-Quit” Signal Really Says
Google’s offer wasn’t just generous. It was strategic. By framing severance as a choice—a voluntary opt-out—they avoided the reputational stink of layoffs while clearing the decks for a new kind of workforce: smaller, more technical, more AI-native.
In other words, this wasn’t a cost-cutting measure. It was a culture reset.
They’re not just changing who does the work. They’re changing what work is.
For years, Google prided itself on hiring the “smartest people in the room.” Now it’s quietly saying: the room’s getting smaller, and the definition of smart has changed.
What This Means for Marketers (and the People Who Teach Them)
I’ve been teaching marketing for years. I still believe in the power of ideas. In creative insight. In the strange, fragile magic of human connection. But I’d be lying if I said the job is the same.
The skill set is shifting. Fast.
The marketers of tomorrow need to:
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Understand how to collaborate with AI, not compete with it.
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Think in systems, not silos.
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Build brands that are more than just data-driven—they need to be meaning-driven.
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Learn how to ask better questions, because the answers are now just a prompt away.
This doesn’t mean the end of marketing. It means the end of marketing as a game of noise and scale. The future belongs to those who know when to automate and when to slow down. When to delegate to a machine, and when to say something only a human can say.
Final Thought
When Google starts paying people to walk away, it’s not about money. It’s about direction. And if you’re in marketing—whether you’re a student, a professor, or a CMO—it’s time to ask yourself: Are you evolving fast enough to stay useful?
Because AI isn’t taking your job.
But someone who knows how to use it probably will.