At Sundar Pichai's Google, AI Is Everything—And Everywhere

A year into his tenure as CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai is rethinking what the company is, where it’s going, and how it gets things done.

- Harry McCracken

SUNDAR PICHAI IS HUDDLING with five Google staffers in a room next to his office that’s known—appropriately enough—as “Sundar’s Huddle.” The employees are members of the Google Photos team, and they’re here this morning to update Pichai on something they’ve been working on for months (I agreed not to reveal details of the project, which is due out by the end of the year).

The group has barely begun its presentation when Pichai starts peppering them with questions, opinions, and advice. For half an hour, the discussion careens from subject to subject: the power of artificial intelligence, the value of integrating Google Photos with other products such as Google Drive, the importance of creating an emotional bond with the users of an app. After the team shows Pichai a rough cut of a promotional video, his feedback is unguarded and heartfelt: “That’s awesome!”

Google’s 44-year-old CEO is, unmistakably, in his element. “Nothing makes me happier than a product review in which I can sit with the team and they’re showing me something they’re building,” Pichai had told me a few days earlier. “[I love] being able to react to it and think through, ‘When users get this, what will their feedback be?’ I’m always on a quest to do that better and do more of it.”

Pichai’s tone at the meeting—affable, engaged, ambitious—encapsulates his approach to running Google. In the year since he was named CEO, he’s been busy reshaping the company into a more harmonious, collaborative place in a quest to improve the productivity of an already notoriously inventive culture.