Technology giant IBM said to "optimize" 7,800 jobs, suspend recruitment of "AI-competent positions"

U.S. company IBM announced on Monday (May 1) local time that it will suspend hiring for positions that can be filled by artificial intelligence (AI), potentially replacing 7,800 jobs with artificial intelligence. This will mean about 7,800 job losses. an IBM spokeswoman said that the layoffs will include positions vacated due to staff turnover.

With the explosion of generative AI such as ChatGPT, unemployment (being replaced by AI) has become a gloom in the minds of countless workers. People are finding that AI has become more widely used in areas such as automating customer service, writing text, art design and generating code.

On the same day, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a media interview that hiring in back-office functions such as human resources, which are non-customer-facing positions with about 26,000 workers, would be suspended or slowed down, according to the Caixin news agency. "I can easily see that 30 percent of those jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence and automation over the next five years."

IBM's latest plan marks the impact and risk of AI technology on human employment. Krishna noted that many simple, mundane tasks, such as providing employment verification letters or moving employees between departments, could be fully automated. Some HR functions, such as assessing workforce composition and productivity, may not be replaced in the next decade, he added.

IBM currently employs about 260,000 people and will continue to recruit software development and customer-facing staff. Finding talent is easier today than it was a year ago, Krishna said, as a wave of layoffs is sweeping through the U.S. tech giant.

The company announced earlier this year that it would lay off about 5,000 employees. However, Krishna stressed that IBM has added staff overall this year, adding about 7,000 employees in the first quarter.