The notice has finally become a reality. Since the rise of artificial intelligences such as ChatGPT, DALL-E or Midjourney, the most common fear among users is no longer the enslavement of the human species by a machine. The anxiety caused by AI has to do with the danger of jobs and, after a lot of discussing it, it has started to come true.
IBM, the technology giant, has already expressed its plan to replace humans with artificial intelligence. In fact, it has already stopped hiring people – or slowed down the process – in those positions where AI could perform better. Among these, human resources and other positions that do not have to do with direct contact with consumers, which represents some 26,000 jobs in the company.
Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, assures in statements to the media Bloomberg that “I could easily see 30% -of that number- replaced by AI and automations in a period of five years.” This would endanger up to 7,800 jobs within the technology giant alone..
IBM continues to be the protagonist of a massive cut in its workforce, being able to lay off up to 5,000 workers once the process is over. However, although the company has decided to bet heavily on the use of artificial intelligence to support its operations, it also have hired some 7,000 people during the first quarter of this year. Thus, this may not be the definitive end of the human role in the world of work.
IBM would spearhead the inclusion of artificial intelligence in the world of work
Since the beginning of this year, the company seems focused on adopting artificial intelligence as the main tool for growth. In March, Kyndryl, an IBM spin-off and provider of managed computing services, said it would begin cutting a percentage of positions in its global workforce. All this in search of efficiency. Also, cuts at this company were followed by layoffs at another, also owned by IBM.
Nevertheless, not everyone is so sure that IBM has yet studied the feasibility of the project. According to Pareekh Jain, an analyst at Pareekh Consulting, Arvind Krishna’s plans sound more like “a hope, not a plan.”
This is only an approximation and extrapolation of current trends for the next five years. The actual figures may not be that many or may take more than five years. We don’t know what challenges will arise from scaling up these early pilot projects around AI or its application.
What Arvind has said is that he expects a 30% reduction in the number of HR employees over the next five years due to AI. Right now, I think it’s a hope, not a plan.
Pareekh Jain, Analyst at Pareekh Consulting
More and more companies are relying on artificial intelligence to carry out projects. In fact, an influential architecture firm already uses this technology to generate its designs, while some studies have already reported that ChatGPT could be more empathic than real doctors, which would affect the landscape of modern medicine.
Reports from Goldman Sachs say that artificial intelligence will replace up to 300 million jobs. Fortunately, it will also allow you to create up to 97 million new roles., according to other research. Of course, human beings will have to be prepared to learn new tasks if we do not want to be left out of the labor competition.