Earning nearly $1 million a year wasn’t enough to keep Yusuf Imran at Google.
In 2026, Imran was making $986,000 as an account executive at Google, but his main income was a base salary of about $170,000 plus sales commissions. Still, he couldn’t help but notice the potential for “life-changing money” that the AI boom was creating outside of Big Tech.
“The pay at Google is very high, but the open AI and equity package at Anthropic is a world apart,” said Imran, 41, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On the other hand, over the past few years I’ve seen talented colleagues laid off, making me less confident in my long-term job security. In April, Imran left Google to launch an AI sales tools startup after building an AI side project in his spare time.
For years, Google’s reputation as a workplace was as famous as its search engine. Our expansive campus, generous benefits, and opportunity to shape products used by billions of people have made us one of the world’s most coveted employers.
That reputation hasn’t gone away, but it’s become more complicated for some employees. Interviews with 12 current and former Google employees, including six who recently left, suggest that the AI boom is creating an opportunity too attractive for some Googlers to ignore. The company has lost several prominent AI researchers to OpenAI and Anthropic in recent weeks.
However, the AI boom is not the only reason. Years of layoffs, shifts in workplace culture, and other changes have led employees across the company to question whether it remains a great place to build a career.
Google no longer seems like a safe bet
Google has been the world’s most attractive employer for business students for more than a decade, according to employer branding firm Universum. However, in 2022, it fell to second place behind Apple. Specifically in the US, Google fell from first place among business students in 2023 to fifth place in the company’s latest survey, but remained the most attractive employer among IT students.
Few factors are more important to current and prospective employees than job security. From its founding in 1998 to 2022, Google had few large-scale layoffs. The company will cut about 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce, in 2023. Small layoffs and voluntary acquisitions followed as Google shifted resources to AI, cut management layers and recalibrated pandemic-era hiring.
Yusuf Imran said the AI boom and recent layoffs influenced his decision to leave Google. Yusuf Imran
For some employees, repeated layoffs have fundamentally changed the way they think about career stability at Google.
About six months after Joslyn Orgill started working as a data engineer at Google, the company announced layoffs for 2023. Mr. Orgill continued to work, but said the layoff was one of the reasons he left last year to pursue a Ph.D. in the field of computer science.
Taylor M. LaCene was one of the employees who accepted the buyout last year. She had already considered focusing on her career coaching business, which she started three years ago, but said repeated layoffs meant she was less at risk of leaving Google than before.
Seeking greater impact
Google still offers many of the generous perks that helped it become known as an employer. But some employees say the experience of working there has changed a little over the past few years.
As part of its cost-cutting efforts, the company has reduced some office equipment and budgets, including reducing the operating hours of some office cafes in 2023. Some employees also said budgets for certain travel, team events and holiday celebrations have become tighter, and work-from-home policies have become more restrictive.
For some employees, the very qualities that make Google such an attractive employer—its size and reach—made it difficult to see the direct impact of their work.
“At Big Tech companies, people are part of a very big machine,” said Ashna Doshi, who left Google in May to launch an AI startup. “I craved the ability to make decisions, act quickly, and see first-hand the results of my work.”
Aashna Doshi left Google in May to launch an AI startup. Ashna Doshi
For Doshi, the chance to build something of his own ultimately outweighed the security of remaining at Google.
“The scarier version of this decision was not to leave Google,” she says. “It just kept lingering and I was always wondering what could have been.”
The AI boom has changed the equation.
Many of the changes reshaping Google are not unique to the company. Technology workers across industries have weathered layoffs, changes in workplace policies, the rapid rise of AI, and more. For many employees, Google remains one of the most desirable places to build a career in technology.
But as OpenAI and Anthropic race towards a potential IPO, the prospect of a pre-IPO stock is a strong temptation for some workers. Career coach Sandeep Teki previously told Business Insider that nearly every AI job seeker he spoke to wanted to work for one of the two companies.
While some Google employees have complained about small pay increases, the company’s six-figure salaries and generous stock grants remain the envy of many in the corporate world. A Google spokesperson previously told Business Insider that the company remains confident in its ability to attract and retain talent.
But for some former Googlers, even Google’s generous compensation isn’t enough to outweigh the opportunities presented by the AI boom, whether it’s joining a fast-growing AI company or building your own.
“If stock is the only way to make real profits in this age of AI, then at some point you’re going to ask yourself whether that stock should be in your company,” Imran said.
Do you have a story to share about working in the tech industry? Email reporter Jacob Zinkula. jzikula@businessinsider.comor via Signal at jzikula.29.