Business
Google overhauls internal learning platform to focus on AI courses
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, speaks during an event in New Delhi, December 19, 2022.
Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images
Google is overhauling a popular internal learning platform to focus on teaching employees how to use modern artificial intelligence tools in their daily work routines, CNBC has learned.
Grow, as the learning service is called, was previously filled with a wide array of courses, ranging from teaching Google employees how to build products, use 3D printers, help with their personal finance or even how to solve a Rubik’s cube. Those offerings have all been replaced primarily by AI-related courses.
The revamp underscores how companies, both within and outside of tech, are racing to train their employees on the advanced AI tools that have been created since OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 ushered in the age of generative AI.
Employees with previously scheduled Grow sessions were notified in the spring that the sessions they signed up for would be cancelled and that course materials would be archived, according to internal correspondence viewed by CNBC. Grow, which was started more than 10 years ago, had grown to more than 500,000 listings before the AI shakeup. Grow is popular among employees and is considered to be one of the unique perks of working at Google, according to sources and an internal discussion forum.
“We have an active learning culture with numerous in-house courses tied to company priorities, along with generous educational reimbursement,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Our internal course offerings have ballooned since we launched it ten years ago, and we’re refreshing Grow to help employees find the most relevant learning opportunities.”
The move to overhaul Grow shows that Google is shifting away from some of its nice-to-have programs to more business-essential offerings as it streamlines operations to prioritize AI. As the company fights to retain its relevance in search amid a heated AI arms race, it has streamlined operations, headcount and employee benefits.
Google has enacted rolling layoffs within several units across the company, particularly after finance chief Anat Ashkenazi’s said last fall that the company could “push a little further” on cost cuts. Google, like many other tech giants, has also rolled back programs like its diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, trainings amid business streamlining as well as from President Trump’s executive orders.
In a memo sent out to employees who had created Grow courses, Google leaders wrote that many of the platform’s “courses were unused,” and “not relevant to the work we do today,” according to an internal message.
“Those that orgs have confirmed are up-to-date and focused on business priorities will still be available,” wrote Google’s people operations staff.
Employees commented on an internal forum that the use of “focused on business priorities” reiterated a sign of the times — Google is primarily focused on programs that contribute to the bottom line.
WATCH: Google is ahead on AI, so we’re not dovish the stock, says Constellation’s Ray Wang
Jacob EvansBBC World Service
Getty ImagesBack in the 1980s when the internet was still in its infancy, countries were being handed their own unique website addresses to navigate this nascent new online world. Such as .us for the US or .uk for the UK.
Eventually, almost every country and territory had a domain based on either its English or own language name. This included the small Caribbean island of Anguilla, which landed the address .ai.
Unbeknownst to Anguilla at the time, this would become a future jackpot.
With the continuing boom in artificial intelligence (AI), more and more companies and individuals are paying Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory, to register new websites with the .ai tag.
Such as US tech boss Dharmesh Shah, who earlier this year spent a reported $700,000 (£519,000) on the address you.ai.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Shah says he purchased it because he had “an idea for an AI product that would allow people to create digital versions of themselves that could do specific tasks on their behalf”.
The number of .ai websites has increased more than 10-fold in the past five years, and has doubled in the past 12 months alone, according to a website that tracks domain name registrations.
The challenge for Anguilla, which has a population of just 16,000 people, is how to harness this lucrative bit of luck and turn it into a long-term and sustainable source of income.
Similar to other small Caribbean islands, Anguilla’s economy is built on a bedrock of tourism. Recently, it’s been attracting visitors in the luxury travel market, particularly from the US.
Anguilla’s statistics department says there was a record number of visitors to the island last year, with 111,639 people entering its shores.
Yet Anguilla’s tourism sector is vulnerable to damage from hurricanes every autumn. Situated in the northeast of the Caribbean island arc, Anguilla lies perfectly within the North Atlantic hurricane belt.
So gaining an increasing income from selling website addresses is playing an important role in diversifying the island’s economy, and making it more resilient to the financial damage that storms may bring. This is something that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted in a recent report on Anguilla.
HubSpotIn its draft 2025 budget document, the Anguillian government says that in 2024 it earned 105.5m East Caribbean dollars ($39m; £29m) from selling domain names. That was almost a quarter (23%) of its total revenues last year. Tourism accounts for some 37%, according to the IMF.
The Anguillian government expects its .ai revenues to increase further to 132m Eastern Caribbean dollars this year, and to 138m in 2026. It comes as more than 850,000 .ai domains are now in existence, up from fewer than 50,000 in 2020.
As a British Overseas Territory, Anguilla is under the sovereignty of the UK, but with a high level of internal self-governance.
The UK has significant influence on the island’s defence and security, and has provided financial assistance during times of crisis. After Hurricane Irma severely damaged it in 2017, the US gave £60m to Anguilla over five years to help meet the repair bill.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office tells the BBC it welcomes Anguilla’s efforts “to find innovative ways to deliver economic growth” as it helps “contribute to Anguilla’s financial self-sufficiency”.
To manage its burgeoning domain name income, in October 2024 Anguilla signed a five-year deal with a US tech firm called Identity Digital, which specialises in internet domain name registries.
At the start of this year, Identity Digital announced that it had moved where all the .ai domains are hosted, from servers in Anguilla, to its own global server network. This is to prevent any disruption from future hurricanes, or any other risks to the island’s infrastructure, such as power cuts.
The exact cost of .ai addresses isn’t publicly disclosed, but registration prices are said to start from roughly $150 to $200. With renewal fees of around the same amount every two years.
At the same time, more in-demand domain names are auctioned off, with some fetching hundreds of thousands of US dollars. The owners of these then have to pay the same small renewal fees as everyone else.
In all cases, the government of Anguilla gets the sales revenue, with Identity Digital getting a cut said to be around 10%. However, they appear to be sensitive about the topic, as both declined to be interviewed for this article.
Currently the most expensive .ai domain name purchase is Mr Shah’s you.ai.
A self-confessed AI-enthusiast, and co-founder of US software company Hubspot, Mr Shah has several other .ai domain addresses to his name, but the flagship you.ai is not yet operational as he’s been busy with other projects.
Mr Shah says he buys domain names for himself, but will occasionally look to sell “if I don’t have immediate plans for it, and there’s another entrepreneur that wants to do something with the name”.
Mr Shah believes that another person or company will soon set a new record for the highest price of an .ai domain purchase, such is the continuing excitement around AI.
But he adds: “Having said that, I still think over the long-term, .com domains will maintain their value better and for longer.”
In recent weeks, .ai auctions have seen major six-figure sales. In July, cloud.ai sold for a reported $600,000 and law.ai sold for $350,000 earlier this month.
Getty ImagesHowever, Anguilla’s position is not without precedent. The similarly tiny Pacific island nation of Tuvalu signed an exclusive deal in 1998 to license its .tv domain name.
Reports say this granted exclusive rights to US domain name registry firm, VeriSign in exchange for $2m a year, which later rose to $5m.
A decade later and with the internet expanding exponentially, Tuvalu’s finance minister, Lotoala Metia, said VeriSign, paid “peanuts” for the right to run the domain name. The country signed a new deal with a different domain provider, GoDaddy, in 2021.
Anguilla is operating in a different fashion, having handed over management of the domain name in a revenue-sharing model, not a fixed payment.
Cashing in on this new line of income sustainably has been a major goal for the island. It’s hoped the increasing incomings will allow for a new airport to be built to facilitate tourism growth, as well as fund improvements to public infrastructure and access to health care.
As the number of registered .ai domains hurtles toward the million mark, Anguillians will hope this money is managed safely and invested in their future.
True story: I had to threaten Replit AI’s brain that I would report it’s clever but dumb suggestions to the AI police for lying.
I also told ChatGPT image creation department how deeply disappointed I was that it could not, after 24 hrs of iterations, render the same high-quality image twice without changing an item on the image or misspelling. All learnings and part of the journey.
We need to remain flexible and open to new tools and approaches, and simultaneously be laser focused. It’s a contradiction, but once you start down this road, you will understand. Experimentation is a must. But it’s also important to ignore the noise and constant hype and CAPS.
How our business’ tech stack evolves
A few years ago, we started with ChatGPT and a few spreadsheets. Today, our technology arsenal spans fifteen AI platforms, from Claude and Perplexity to specialised tools like RollHQ for project management and Synthesia for AI video materials. Yet the most important lesson we’ve learned isn’t about the technology itself. It’s about the critical space between human judgment and machine capability.
The data tells a compelling story about where business stands today: McKinsey reports that 72 percent of organizations have adopted AI for at least one business function, yet only one percent believe they’ve reached maturity in their implementation. Meanwhile, 90 percent of professionals using AI report working faster, with 80 percent saying it improves their work quality.
This gap between widespread adoption and true excellence defines the challenge facing every service organisation today, including our own.
Our journey began like many others, experimenting with generative AI for document drafting and research. We quickly discovered that quality was low and simply adding tools wasn’t enough. What mattered was creating a framework that put human expertise at the center while leveraging AI’s processing power. This led us to develop what we call our “human creating the loop” approach, an evolution beyond the traditional human-in-the-loop model. It has become more about AI-in-the-loop for us than the other way round.
The distinction matters.
Human-in-the-loop suggests people checking machine outputs. Human creating the loop means professionals actively designing how AI integrates into workflows, setting boundaries, and maintaining creative control. Every client deliverable, every strategic recommendation, every customer interaction flows through experienced consultants who understand context, nuance, and the subtleties that define quality service delivery.
Our evolving tech stack
Our technology portfolio has grown strategically, with each tool selected for specific capabilities.
Each undergoes regular evaluation against key metrics, with fact-checking accuracy being paramount. We’ve found that combining multiple tools for fact checking and verification, especially Perplexity’s cited sources with Claude’s analytical capabilities, dramatically improves reliability.
The professional services landscape particularly demonstrates why human judgment remains irreplaceable. AI can analyse patterns, generate reports, and flag potential issues instantly. But understanding whether a client concern requires immediate attention or strategic patience, whether to propose bold changes or incremental improvements; these decisions require wisdom that comes from experience, not algorithms.
That’s also leaving aside the constant habit of AI generalising, making things up and often blatantly lying.
For organisations beginning their AI journey, start with clear boundaries rather than broad adoption.
Investment in training will be crucial.
Research shows that 70 percent of AI implementation obstacles are people and process-related, not technical. Create internal champions who understand both the technology and your industry’s unique requirements.
Document what works and what doesn’t. Share learnings across teams. Address resistance directly by demonstrating how AI enhances rather than replaces human expertise.
The data supports this approach. Organisations with high AI-maturity report three times higher return on investment than those just beginning. But maturity doesn’t mean maximum automation. It means thoughtful integration that amplifies human capabilities.
Looking ahead, organisations that thrive will be those that view AI as an opportunity to elevate human creativity rather than replace it.
Alexander PR’s AI policy framework
Our approach to AI centres on human-led service delivery, as outlined in our core policy pillars:
- Oversight: Human-Led PR
We use AI selectively to improve efficiency, accuracy, and impact. Every output is reviewed, adjusted, and approved by experienced APR consultants – our approach to AI centres on AI-in-the-loop assurance and adherence to APR’s professional standards.
- Confidentiality
We treat client confidentiality and data security as paramount. No sensitive client information is ever entered into public or third-party AI platforms without explicit permission.
- Transparency
We are upfront with clients and stakeholders about when, how, and why we use AI to support our human-led services. Where appropriate, this includes clearly disclosing the role AI plays in research, content development, and our range of communications outputs.
- Objectivity
We regularly audit AI use to guard against bias and uphold fair, inclusive, and accurate communication. Outputs are verified against trusted sources to ensure factual integrity.
- Compliance
We adhere to all applicable privacy laws, industry ethical standards, and our own company values. Our approach to AI governance is continuously updated as technology and regulation evolve.
- Education
Our team stays up to date on emerging AI tools and risks. An internal working group regularly reviews best practices and ensures responsible and optimal use of evolving technologies.
This framework is a living document that adapts as technology and regulations evolve. The six pillars provide structure while allowing flexibility for innovation. We’ve learned transparency builds trust. Clients appreciate knowing when AI assists in their projects, understanding it means more human time for strategic thinking.
Most importantly, we’ve recognised our policy must balance innovation with responsibility. As new tools emerge and capabilities expand, we evaluate them against our core principle: does this enhance our ability to deliver exceptional service while maintaining the trust our clients place in us?
The answer guides every decision, ensuring our AI adoption serves our mission rather than defining it.
For more on our approach and regular updates on all things AI reputation, head to Alexander PR’s website or subscribe to the AI Rep Brief newsletter.
Train passengers in the East Midlands are to test technology that will let them tap in and out for journeys and be charged the best fare for their trip at the end of the day.
Trials of digital rail tickets based on GPS tracking will begin on Monday as part of the government’s plan to improve the rail network’s complex fare system.
Passengers will check in for travel on their phones with an app and have their journey tracked using satellite location technology.
The app will automatically charge them the best fare at the end of the day’s travel and provide a barcode when needed for ticket inspections or to pass through ticket barriers.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said the technology, if it proves successful, would replace the need for paper tickets and mobile tickets using QR codes, which have to be bought before travel. Passengers will be able to travel without planning or booking journeys in advance.
The technology, which has previously been tested in Switzerland, Denmark and Scotland, is being piloted in England first on East Midlands Railway services between Leicester, Derby and Nottingham, with trials to be extended to Northern Trains in Yorkshire from the end of the month. Up to 4,000 passengers are expected to take part in the pilots.
The DfT said the scheme demonstrated its commitment to improving the passenger experience and trialling innovative technology to save time and money.
The rail minister, Peter Hendy, said: “The railway ticketing system is far too complicated and long overdue an upgrade to bring it into the 21st century. Through these trials we’re doing just that, and making buying tickets more convenient, more accessible and more flexible.
“By putting passenger experience at the heart of our decision-making, we’re modernising fares and ticketing and making it simpler and easier for people to choose rail.”
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Despite widespread consensus on the need to overhaul ticketing, the DfT and rail industry have yet to find a solution. The previous government had pledged to tackle England’s complex fare system, although attempts to make savings by automating ticketing and closing ticket offices were widely resisted by MPs as well as unions.
Labour pledged a “best price guarantee” as part of fares reform under its plans for a nationalised Great British Railways, which it hopes will be up and running in 2027.
Oli Cox, the head of commercial strategy at East Midlands Railway, said more than 500 people had registered for its part in the trial. He said: “We know that complex fares can be a real barrier to travel, but this trial removes that uncertainty, making it easy to simply tap in and out on your phone, safe in the knowledge you’re always getting the best-value fare on the day.”
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