Google hires AI engineers to transform Discover into concierge

Image credit: Search Engine Journal

Google is hiring engineers and designers to enhance its Discover feed with AI-generated and hyper-personalized content, signaling a major shift toward a proactive concierge experience.

The Mountain View, U.S.-based technology company is aggressively integrating advanced artificial intelligence into its content delivery, impacting more than 500 million daily active users.

Job postings include Staff Machine Learning Engineers tasked with generating and recommending AI-generated content (AIGC) for Discover, according to recent listings. These roles will focus on quality control, topic identification, and content understanding within the AI systems.

A director-level design lead position aims to transform Discover into a “proactive, hyper-personalized concierge experience” designed to help users achieve specific goals, Google stated in a job description. Responsibilities for this role include building agentic flows for proactive surfaces like Discover and Notifications.

The design lead will also ensure the factuality, freshness, coherence, and appropriate tone of the AI-generated content. This role requires balancing AI capabilities with human voices and sources, and experience in building value exchanges with creators and publishers.

The Principal UX listing for Discover, a Director+ level role, offers a U.S. base salary ranging from $275,000 to $382,000, in addition to bonus and equity, according to the job advertisement.

Google has already begun reporting site links appearing in its generative AI features via Search Console. The company launched AI previews on trending topics in Discover in the U.S., South Korea, and India in October 2023, following tests of a “deep dive” button in September.

Users and publishers retain control over their content through the Search generative AI control, which allows sites to opt out of inclusion in Discover’s generative AI features, AI Overviews, and AI Mode, the company reported.

Google executives Damien Andell and Robby Stein were mentioned in previous discussions regarding the evolution of Google’s content and search initiatives.

Source: Search Engine Journal