In a memo, Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) CEO Sundar Pichai warned employees of additional job cuts to come in 2024, after laying off over 100 workers at YouTube. Not entirely exclusive to Big Tech, companies like Amazon (AMZN) and BlackRock (BLK) have also expanded plans for layoffs.

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Seana Smith and Brad Smith explore the Google parent company's outlook while handling plans for future layoffs.

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Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Google CEO Sundar Pichai is joining the growing chorus of job cut warnings, telling employees that shifts in investments towards other areas of tech like AI likely mean a reduction in the company's ranks.

Just this week, the company cut 100 employees at its video platform, YouTube here. What's worth noting here, especially within this reporting that came forward originally by the verge of these role eliminations, not at the scale of last year's reductions and not touching every team that was part of the memo that was uncovered there.

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Google, as you will remember, cuts over 10,000 jobs-- 12,000 jobs actually this time last year. And so that's very near in the rearview mirror here as you think back to what the overall thread of some of these tech cuts have looked like even to start off 2020 for now.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, and I think many employees and not just at Google but really employees in Silicon Valley right now have been on edge because of everything that has played out within the sector over the last 18 months when it pertains to job cuts.

So a warning here from Sundar Pichai that maybe more job cuts are going to be necessary to offset some of the investment that the company plans in its AI technology here. It's a word of caution that extends beyond Google and a word of caution I think for many of the players within Silicon Valley because you're right, Brad. Last year, the cuts about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce. So we're not expecting a cut to that extent or that scale.

But again, any sort of warning I think is also just points back to the fact this ongoing theme that we've heard from many of the companies that have already reported this earnings season and also a theme that we've heard over the last couple of earnings season, which is just cost discipline. And that's certainly a priority here for corporate America as we head into and look ahead to 2024.

So AI, a top priority for Google. They need to invest more. Microsoft pretty widely viewed as a leader within this space. Google playing catch up, I think, in the mind of many investors. Whether or not that is actually true is something that many analysts and investors on the street continue to debate but Alphabet really seeing that is the future that they need to allocate more money to their AI division. And that's going to result, it sounds like, in layoffs here across the board.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, some of these job cuts we're seeing certainly a component of cost discipline that so far as Liz Young has told about us about in the past and expectations as of right now that are starting to play out even more so.