In a recent leadership restructuring, Google has appointed Prabhakar Raghavan, as its new Chief Technologist. Raghavan, who was previously Senior Vice President overseeing key areas like Google Search, Assistant, Ads, Commerce, and Payments products, will replace longtime executive Nick Fox in this role.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the move in a blog post last week. Raghavan has been with Google for 12 years and according to the announcement, Raghavan will work closely with Pichai and Google’s leadership to drive technical strategy and enhance the company’s focus on innovation and technical excellence.
The move comes at a critical time for Google, as the company seeks to streamline its operations and intensify its efforts in the artificial intelligence (AI) race, an area where competition has been rapidly increasing.
Pichai stated: “Prabhakar’s leadership journey at Google has been remarkable, spanning Research, Workspace, Ads, and K&I. He led the Gmail team in launching Smart Reply and Smart Compose as early examples of using AI to improve products, and took Gmail and Drive past 1 billion users.”
“Across K&I, Prabhakar and team have achieved significant growth and innovation: from launching AI Overviews, a groundbreaking advancement in Search that benefits hundreds of millions of users worldwide to introducing new search modalities like Circle to Search, video understanding, and ‘shop what you see’ in Lens — all while improving core Search functionality. Maps and Shopping have transformed with AI-driven features like immersive view and virtual try-on. And in Ads, we’ve made real progress with AI-powered ad formats and streamlined campaign management, while continuing to innovate with Performance Max to empower millions of businesses,” he further added.
Prabhakar Raghavan brings an extensive background in computer science and technology to his new role. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Raghavan’s expertise has earned him numerous accolades, including membership in the National Academy of Engineering and a Laurea honoris causa from the University of Bologna.
Before joining Google, Raghavan had a distinguished career leading Yahoo Labs, where he was responsible for innovations in search and ad technology. He also served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Verity and held key roles at IBM, focusing on algorithms, data mining, and machine learning. His academic contributions include co-authoring widely-used textbooks on algorithms and search, along with publishing over 100 research papers and holding 20 patents, including those on link analysis for web search.
As Google’s Chief Technologist, Raghavan is expected to steer the company’s technological direction at a time when AI and machine learning are transforming the digital landscape. His wealth of experience in web search, databases, and advertising technology positions him as a key figure in driving Google’s next phase of growth.
Raghavan’s contributions have consistently driven measurable improvements in user experience, making him an essential leader as Google navigates both internal restructuring and external market challenges.
