IBM does not foresee more layoffs due to artificial intelligence; quite the opposite. The company will hire more employees than it lets go from now on. Great news for a sector that fears AI might be the end of the road.
One of the first major companies to confirm that it will stop hiring for jobs that could be performed by AI, IBM, has stated that it has no intention of laying off any programmers as a result of this technology.
Its CEO added that, although some job positions were expected to be lost due to artificial intelligence, the company will hire a much larger number of employees.
For the first time, we don’t see AI as a threat
In his speech yesterday at the Fortune CEO Initiative conference, as reported by Insider, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna stated that he had no intention of letting go of a single programmer due to AI. “I will get more,” he added.
Krishna believes that instead of costing them their jobs, AI will enhance programmers’ productivity by 30%. This aligns with similar studies that conclude AI will increase job opportunities for most people rather than replace them.
It might be surprising that Krishna reassures about job losses related to AI, given that the CEO previously mentioned he anticipated around 30% of IBM’s functions would be replaced by AI and automation within a five-year period, equivalent to about 7,800 jobs.
Krishna now states that while he expects to gradually eliminate administrative functions in human resources, IBM is increasing the number of software engineering and sales roles in the next three to four years, with more positions being added than removed.
“We added 8,000 roles. We subtracted about 800,” Krishna said. “The first thing that can be automated is repetitive, non-creative work.”
IBM’s CEO mentioned that while AI could take over around 10% to 20% of “low-level” tasks, it was unlikely to automate someone’s entire job.
