Google Brings Pixel and Android Teams Together Because AI

If you didn’t already know that Google was going heavy on AI, major reorganization news out of the Search giant today should finally help you realize that they believe AI is the future and they need teams working closer together to realize it. Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new “Platforms and Devices” team that combines hardware efforts (like the Pixel line of products) and most of the software platforms you use in order to move faster, deliver better products, and more.

This new Platforms and Devices team will be led by Rick Osterloh, who has been in charge of Google’s hardware for many years. He’ll now also oversee Android, Chrome, ChromeOS, Photos, the teams working on computational photography and on-device intelligence, etc. With Osterloh taking over the Android side of things, that means that long-time lead Hiroshi Lockheimer will step aside and move onto other projects within Google.

In a company note titled “Building for our AI future,” Pichai said that these changes should “help [Google] deliver higher quality products and experiences for our users and partners,” “turbocharge the Android and Chrome ecosystems,” and (hopefully) speed-up decision-making while pushing new innovations to its partners more quickly.

Of course, the innovations we’re talking about here largely revolve around using AI to improve platforms and devices. These teams together will try to bring AI into all that Google offers as fast as possible, because that’s the race our tech industry is running. Their Gemini products are already in so many services, but you should prepare for more.

My reaction to this news is that I just want the Pixel 9 Pro.