For ages, the conventional wisdom was that artificial intelligence wouldn’t cause too much harm to jobs around the world. IBM’s new hiring pause suggests that those views might have been slightly optimistic.
According to CEO Arvind Krishna, the company intends to freeze hiring for a range of roles within the company. These roles include so-called back-office functions and amount to around 26,000 staff. Of those, approximately 30% are expected to be replaceable.
IBM’s artificial intelligence
“I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period,” said Krishna. Some human resources functions and anything with a predictable and easily reproduced to-do list is subject to replacement by computers. The number of jobs under threat at the company, as a result, is about 7,800 workers.
Examples given were automation of the tasks of providing employment letters or facilitating employee transfers between departments. Humans will be yanked out of those, and similar situations. Previously handled by actual people, employee productivity and workforce assessment will probably be phased out. These functions will likely be replaced with AI at IBM. Programs like ChatGPT loves sorting through this sort of information and providing feedback.
Read More: AI will increase inequality and raise tough questions about humanity, economists warn
IBM’s planned move isn’t indicative of a greater trend in the industry — yet. The company is currently engaged in a series of layoffs (like most of the tech industry). There’s potential for the jobs lost, and others, to be replaced by more cost-effective AI in the near future.
Source: Bloomberg