Paramount Hires Former Google Exec As Head of Consumer AI

Paramount Skydance just made a key hire to help advance its AI push.

Barak Turovsky, who oversaw Google’s AI language product for seven years, is joining David Ellison’s company as the head of consumer AI, product chief Dane Glasgow told tech staffers on Monday afternoon.

Turovsky most recently worked at General Motors and has held positions at companies including Cisco, PayPal, SAP, and IBM.

Hiring Turovsky will help Paramount “supercharge” the company’s transformation as it uses AI to “meaningfully drive” growth, Glasgow told employees in an email, which was obtained by Business Insider.

Turovsky “will be responsible for growing our AI / ML team,” which will “explore ways to leverage AI” across its streaming business, headlined by Paramount+ and free streamer Pluto TV, Glasgow said.

Glasgow then listed the ways AI could help its streamers:

PersonalizationContent discoveryPlatform intelligenceConsumer engagementMonetization capabilities

The company has been looking to bolster its streaming services with new consumer-facing features. Paramount+ rolled out a short-form video feed, and the company is developing interactive features, including a shopping tool and one centered on sports stats. The company is also looking to put video podcasts on Paramount+.

Paramount is leaning into technology

Paramount software engineers have told Business Insider they’re increasingly using AI, and one said they’d used eight to 10 agents at a time to knock out tasks. This AI user said that “Paramount is getting better” at implementing tech, adding that it’s still catching up to companies like Netflix and Google.

Paramount’s product chief said in the Monday email that the company’s goal is to “attract some of the best talent available” as it leans into AI.

Ellison’s company recently hired fellow former Google executive Hugh Williams as an EVP and an “Executive in Residence.” Last fall, Glasgow joined Paramount from Meta, and revenue chief Jay Askinasi came on board from Roku.

Paramount is looking to hire AI aficionados down the chain of command, based on current job listings for lead software engineers with experience building “intelligent automation systems.”

The company will restructure its tech organization when CTO Phil Wiser steps down at the end of the month, Business Insider reported on Friday. The company will not replace Wiser and instead have four key executives report directly to Glasgow.

Turovsky, who joined Paramount on Monday as an EVP, also reports to Glasgow.

Robert Dumoulin, Paramount’s SVP of Applied Intelligence, will now report to Turovsky.

Read the full memo from Glasgow to employees here:

Team,As we see every day, the pace of technological change our industry is experiencing is rapid and we’ve already made tremendous progress in recent months to evolve our organization and products to remain on the forefront of what’s possible. In order to supercharge our transformation, I am excited to announce that Barak Turovsky is joining Paramount as our EVP and Head of Consumer AI, reporting directly to me.Barak brings deep and highly relevant experience, having contributed to the development of foundational technologies that underpin AI and applying those capabilities at scale across multiple industries. At Google, he led the Languages AI product organization responsible for commercializing AI technologies across Google Search, Ads, YouTube, Cloud, Translate, Android, and other products, and spearheaded the product efforts behind the industry’s first large-scale commercial deployment of large language models and Transformers-based technology. Later, he held senior AI-focused roles at both General Motors and Cisco leading research, engineering and product teams to develop cutting-edge solutions and technologies.He joins at a critical time in our company’s evolution as we look to scale AI and ML to meaningfully drive our growth. He will be responsible for growing our AI / ML team and their capacity as we attract some of the best talent available. Barak and team will also explore ways to leverage AI to improve personalization, content discovery, platform intelligence, consumer engagement, and monetization capabilities across Paramount+ and Pluto TV. To drive strong alignment across these efforts, Robert Dumoulin, SVP of Applied Intelligence, will report to Barak.Technology will always be a creative multiplier and, with Barak’s leadership, I’m looking forward to seeing the impact he and the team will make as we drive our technological evolution forward. Please join me in welcoming Barak to Paramount!Cheers!Dane