I have no mouth and must scream—the AI workforce appears to be moving at full speed. CEO Arvind Krishna stated that the business intends to suspend or slow hiring for roles where AI potentially replace people in the future years.
IBM’s CEO Said
Krishna told in an interview that the recruiting slowdown or freeze would affect back-office employees and departments such as HR.
Krishna told the source that these non-customer-facing positions account for approximately 26,000 employees in IBM’s workforce, and that “I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period.”
Krishna is interested in automating approximately 7,800 human positions, and says that it’s is still employing customer-facing and software development employees. “There is no blanket hiring ‘pause’ in place,” communications officer Tim Davidson tells in an email.
“IBM is being deliberate and thoughtful in our hiring with a focus on revenue-generating roles, and we’re being very selective when filling jobs that don’t directly touch our clients or technology. We are actively hiring for thousands of positions right now.”
Nonetheless, Krishna’s comments and decision to automate demonstrate how disposable the workforce can be to executives and businesses.
Prior to this move, IBM announced layoffs in January affecting 3,900 positions—roughly 1.5% of the company’s total workforce at the time.
However, IBM is not alone in incorporating AI into a company’s workflow. Walmart is reportedly utilising an AI chatbot to negotiate pricing with suppliers for backend materials such as shopping carts, and 75% of suppliers have reportedly told the company that they prefer negotiating with a machine rather than a human.
What businesses like IBM are blatantly disregarding is the possibility that AI could augment labour by making menial activities easier or even non-existent, hence optimising the performance of both the artificial intelligence and the human worker.
According to new research from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14% of employees who used ChatGPT in their workflow increased their productivity, with the least experienced and competent individuals completing jobs 35% faster.
To read our blog on “IBM’s cutting-edge AI technology makes applications scalable,” click here
