Prabhakar Raghavan was appointed as Google’s Chief Technologist, succeeding Nick Fox, while overseeing significant advancements in AI and addressing ongoing challenges within the company.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced the appointment of longtime executive Prabhakar Raghavan as the company’s new chief technologist. Raghavan has been a key figure at the company since 2018, overseeing the ads and commerce division.

In 2020, Raghavan took on the additional responsibility of heading Google Search and Assistant. His new role involved close collaboration with him and other Google leaders to provide technical direction and promote a culture of tech excellence within the company.

Raghavan had decided it was time for a significant career leap, which helped him guide the technical vision of the organization while promoting an environment that encourages innovation and excellence in technology. This leadership change comes at a time when Google is restructuring its teams to accelerate its efforts in the artificial intelligence arena, where competition has intensified. The transition occurs amid a challenging period for the company, which is currently facing multiple antitrust lawsuits related to its search and ads operations. The publication also indicated that Google's search advertising market share is projected to dip below 50 percent in the U.S. for the first time in over a decade.

Raghavan’s extensive leadership journey at Google has encompassed various sectors, including Research, Workspace, Ads and Knowledge and Innovation (K&I). He has been credited with spearheading the development of AI-driven features that significantly improved products such as Gmail, which launched Smart Reply and Smart Compose under his leadership. His tenure also witnessed Gmail and Drive surpassing 1 billion users.

Prior to joining Google, Raghavan worked at Yahoo, where he established and managed Yahoo Labs. His career also includes serving as chief technology officer at Verity and spending 14 years at IBM, focusing on algorithms, data mining and machine learning.

Educationally, Raghavan holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His contributions to the field have earned him recognition as a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He has also served as a consulting professor at Stanford University and was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the ACM. In 2009, he received a Laurea honoris causa from the University of Bologna.

Raghavan’s extensive experience and proven track record in leading innovative projects, such as the AI-driven advancements in Gmail, position him well to guide Google's technical vision and encourage a culture of excellence. His leadership will be critical in driving technological advancements and ensuring the company remains at the forefront of the digital landscape.