TNB Tech Minute: Google Shakes Up AI Leadership Amid Chief Scientist Departure

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Countless companies invest in AI tools without tying them to tangible business outcomes. Join McKinsey later to learn how leaders rewire their organizations for sustained impact and value.

**Imani Moise** (0:15)
Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Wednesday, August 5th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal. Google announced new leadership of its AI operations today in a shakeup following a wave of high profile departures and delays in releasing a model on par with top offerings from Anthropic and OpenAI. Demis Hasabis is stepping down as chief executive of Google DeepMind to become chairman and chief scientist, while Jeff Dean, Google's current chief scientist, is leaving to co-found a new AI startup with three other company veterans. Google's early investments in AI research and infrastructure and its massive base of consumer and enterprise users haven't translated into a consistently dominant position in the AI boom. The company vaulted ahead in the race to develop powerful frontier models with an updated version of Gemini last fall. Since then, it has struggled to keep pace with competitors capability advances as measured by widely used benchmark tests. News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.
Uber Technologies has reported an increase in rides and deliveries this quarter, as its customer base expanded. But the ride hailing company issued a soft outlook as it continues to invest heavily in autonomous vehicles. Uber reported revenue of $14.2 billion for the second quarter, up 12% from a year ago, but below analyst estimates. Uber CEO said the company will continue to invest in its cross-platform strategy, planning to invest $10 billion over the coming years to build out the world's largest platform for AVs at a global scale.
And Shopify is forecasting accelerated sales growth for the third quarter, as AI-driven search and broad merchant expansion fuel market share gains. The optimistic outlook puts to rest investor anxieties that have weighed on the company since its first quarter report, when management signaled a potential sales slowdown. Instead, the e-commerce platform is guiding for revenue to grow at a low 30s percentage rate in the current quarter, topping the Wall Street consensus of about 27%.
The company said AI-driven traffic and order volumes have tripled year over year. And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. We'll have another quick tech update in the morning.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:29)
AI transformation is more than a tech initiative. It requires a broader rewiring of human skills and ways of working. Here's Dan Swann, Senior Partner at McKinsey.

**Dan Swann** (2:38)
One of the biggest unlocks we see is the human being capabilities around the technology. Whereas before you may need to be really good at analysis, now the skill might be how do you prompt these tools to get the right answers and outcomes. So for us, it's a really big priority to help companies to understand how do you need to change the operating model of your organization and change the underlying capabilities of the people that are interacting with the technology. And when you see that all humming together, it can be really, really special.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:09)
Discover how McKinsey helps organizations rewire to outcompete with AI at mckinsey.com/techmoves.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:16)
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