IBM to pause hiring for jobs that artificial intelligence could do
- Hiring in back-office functions – such as human resources – will be suspended or slowed, CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview
- IBM currently employs about 260,000 workers and continues to hire for software development and customer-facing roles
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) chief executive Arvind Krishna said the company expects to pause hiring for roles it thinks could be replaced with artificial intelligence (AI) in the coming years.
Hiring in back-office functions – such as human resources – will be suspended or slowed, Krishna said in an interview. These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers, Krishna said. “I could easily see 30 per cent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period.”
That would mean roughly 7,800 jobs lost. Part of any reduction would include not replacing roles vacated by attrition, an IBM spokesman said.
As AI tools have captured the public imagination for their ability to automate customer service, write text and generate code, many observers have worried about their potential to disrupt the labour market. Krishna’s plan marks one of the largest workforce strategies announced in response to the rapidly advancing technology.
More mundane tasks such as providing employment verification letters or moving employees between departments will likely be fully automated, Krishna said. Some HR functions, such as evaluating workforce composition and productivity, probably will not be replaced over the next decade, he added.