Google’s been on an efficiency drive. Its new CFO said it can ‘push a little further.’

Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi

Google has spent the past couple of years getting its business into shape through layoffs and countless reorganizations. Its new CFO said it can do better.

Making her debut on the company’s Q3 earnings call on Tuesday, Google’s new finance chief Anat Ashkenazi said one of her “key priorities” right now was looking across Alphabet “to see what we can do in terms of driving further efficiencies.”

Ashkenazi name-checked Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former CFO Ruth Porat for doing “really good work” in starting to rework Google’s cost base.

“But I think any organization can always push a little further,” she said.

Ashkenazi was responding to Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney, who asked if there were more opportunities to get Google’s margins looking healthier. While Google reported some eye-popping Q3 numbers, the company has been upfront that it’s spending big on data centers for its new AI models and products.

Ashkenazi suggested that some of the new efficiencies could come from initiatives like internal AI tools rather than just cutting head count. On the same call, Pichai revealed that a quarter of new code written inside Google is generated by AI.

“Think not just about the size of the organization but mostly how we operate and how we run the business,” said Ashkenazi. “I think when you simplify the organization — Sundar just made a few comments on that — when we use AI within our own processes and how we get work done, there are some efficiencies or opportunities for efficiencies.”

‘Code Red’

The arrival of Ashkenazi, who replaced Google’s long-serving finance chief Porat earlier this year, has some analysts and investors excited by the possibility of more transparency in the company’s financials, especially as spending on AI ramps up.

In a note published this week, analysts from BNP Paribas hailed Ashkenazi as a “code red” initiative for the company, calling her arrival “one of the most underappreciated catalysts in the sector right now.”

Google is now overhauling several of its key AI products, including Search, and investors want to know if this is paying off. They also want to see that Google can move fast enough to catch and outpace rivals such as OpenAI.

In September 2022, Pichai said he wanted to make the company 20% more efficient. Since then, Google has slashed its head count, cut down on meetings, and launched new AI tools to help employees code faster. The changes show no sign of stopping: just this month, the company announced it would roll its Gemini chatbot team into the Google DeepMind unit.