Google has laid off 100 of its employees in design-related roles as part of its ongoing push to accelerate its artificial intelligence (AI) agenda, according to a new report.

According to a report by CNBC, which viewed internal documents, the Google layoffs happened earlier this week. The layoffs affected the employees from “quantitative user experience research” and “platform and service experience” teams. Google also asked staff from some adjacent teams to go, as per the report.

According to Business Insider, affected employees were informed via email on Monday that their roles were being eliminated.

Livemint could not independently verify the news. An update will be added if Google issues a statement.

The impacted laid-off employees were placed in roles that often focused on using data, surveys, and other tools to understand and implement users’ behaviour in developing and designing products, according to the report.

Earlier this year, Google laid off half of its design team, many of whom were based in the United States. Some Google employees have reportedly been asked to find new roles within the company by early December.

Google layoffs amid AI push

The latest round of layoffs at the tech giant comes as Google ramps up efforts to strengthen its AI infrastructure, cutting costs in other departments.

Since the beginning of this year, the Sundar Pichai-led company has offered voluntary exit packages to several US-based units. It has also let go of around one-third of managers in smaller teams.

Google has also started pushing its employees to integrate AI tools more deeply into their work.

So far, teams across human resources, hardware, search, ads, marketing, finance and commerce have been offered buyouts.

However, more recently, Google laid off more than 200 contractors working on its artificial intelligence projects, including Gemini and AI Overviews.

The layoffs at Google reportedly took place in at least two separate rounds and were carried out with little to no prior warning.

Google has not issued a statement regarding the latest layoffs.