The Workforce AI Index · Communication Services
Alphabet (GOOGL)
A search and cloud company read by description. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-05. Ranked 9 of the 10 Communication Services companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
The filing states one total and keeps vendors and contractors outside it, so the three patterns follow its description of services, cloud infrastructure and AI research.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 23% now, 52% at the end of 2027, 65% at the end of 2028, 71% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 71% desk work, 22% people work and 7% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 29% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 53% becomes checking a model's work and 11% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
190,820 employees as of 2025-12-31 (stated). The filing does not state a count by country. Its extended workforce of vendors, temporary staff and independent contractors is not counted, as the filing itself distinguishes them.
The filing: “As of December 31, 2025, Alphabet had 190,820 employees.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services | 70% | By (c): the filing states one total and no split by segment, and describes Google Services (search, advertising, YouTube, Android, devices) as its largest business, so most of the workforce is read into the web search portals and information services pattern by description. |
| Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services | 20% | By (c): Google Cloud and the data centers and AI-optimized infrastructure the filing describes have no stated headcount, so a share is read into the computing infrastructure pattern by description. |
| Scientific Research and Development Services | 10% | By (c): the filing describes centralized AI research and development that builds its frontier models, without a headcount, so a share is read into the research and development pattern by description. |
What the filing says about the workforce: 190,820 employees; works councils and statutory employee representation in certain countries; an extended workforce of vendors, temporary staff and independent contractors outside the count.
What the filing says about AI
85 sentences in the filing name AI. AI runs through the filing as the company's strategy ('a profound platform shift'), a full-stack approach from AI-optimized infrastructure to frontier models, and centralized AI research and development; the human capital section describes compensation, training and the extended workforce without naming AI.
- “It led us to be a pioneer in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and, since 2016, be an AI-first company.”
- “Supporting these businesses, we have centralized certain AI-related research and development focused on advanced research in AI and developing the frontier models that serve our businesses, which is reported in Alphabet-level activities.”
- “Making AI Helpful for Everyone We believe AI is a profound platform shift that can bring meaningful and positive change to people and societies across the world, and to our business.”
- “We aim to build the most advanced, safe, and responsible AI through our full-stack approach, which spans AI-optimized infrastructure; world-class research, including models and tooling; and our products and platforms that bring AI to billions of people, developers, and enterprises.”
- “At the foundation of our full-stack approach is our AI-optimized infrastructure - a key differentiator enabling us to power our own products, such as Search and YouTube, and support the services we provide to our Google Cloud customers.”
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 190,820 | 2026-02-05 | 10-K |
| 2024-12-31 | 183,323 | 2025-02-05 | 10-K |
| 2023-12-31 | 182,502 | 2024-01-31 | 10-K |
| 2022-12-31 | 190,234 | 2023-02-03 | 10-K |
| 2021-12-31 | 156,500 | 2022-02-02 | 10-K |
| 2020-12-31 | 135,301 | 2021-02-03 | 10-K |
| 2019-12-31 | 118,899 | 2020-02-04 | 10-K |
| 2018-12-31 | 98,771 | 2019-02-05 | 10-K |
| 2017-12-31 | 80,110 | 2018-02-06 | 10-K |
| 2016-12-31 | 72,053 | 2017-02-03 | 10-K |
| 2015-12-31 | 61,814 | 2016-02-11 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- No split by segment or country is stated; all three pattern shares follow the business description (c).
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001652044-26-000018, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Questions about this company
- How much of Alphabet's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 23% now and 65% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Alphabet's own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Alphabet employ?
- 190,820 as of December 31, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025 states.
- What kinds of work make up Alphabet's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 3 industry staffing patterns, the largest Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services; by those patterns the work is about 71% desk work, 22% people work and 7% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Alphabet's annual report say about AI?
- 85 sentences in the filing name AI. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 1, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.