With the artificial intelligence creating significant waves across all sectors, International Business Machines Corp. is planning to pause its hiring inorder to pave way for the AI roles. The company expects to replace an estimated 7,800 jobs by AI.
In an interview with Bloomberg News, the company's CEO Arvind Krishna said that the company expects to pause hiring. It would mainly impact back-office functions such as human resources, administrations and so on, Krishna added.
These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers, Krishna said. "I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period," he added.
Krishna, who has been the CEO since 2020, also said that IBM's workforce reduction strategy may include not filling roles left vacant due to attrition.
With the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, text-generating AI chatbot, significant attention is drawn worldwide exploring its possibilities in their respective sectors including software development.
During the interview, Krishna also added that mundane tasks including providing employment verification letters is likely to be fully automated.
"Some HR functions such as evaluating workforce composition and productivity, probably won't be replaced over the next decade,” he said.
IBM currently employs around 2,60,000 workers and continues to hire for software development and customer facing roles.
