IBM to freeze hiring for roles that AI can replace: CEO Arvind Krishna

IBM is planning to pause hiring for roles that the company thinks can be replaced by artificial intelligence in the coming years. This would roughly affect 7,800 jobs.

Krishna said that hiring in back-office functions like human resources will be suspended or slowed. These non-client facing roles employ as much as 26,000 workers. “I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period”, said Arvind Krishna.

IBM CEO also mentioned that more mundane jobs of providing employment verification letters or moving employees between departments will likely be fully automated. However, he also added that some HR functions, such as evaluating workforce composition and productivity, probably won’t be replaced over the next decade.

As per Business Standard, IBM currently employs about 260,000 workers and continues to hire for software development and customer-facing roles. Finding talent is easier today than a year ago, Krishna said. The company announced job cuts earlier this year, which may amount to about 5,000 workers once completed.