IBM to Pause Hiring for 7,800 Jobs in AI PushIBM to Pause Hiring for 7,800 Jobs in AI Push

IBM will pause hiring for around 7,800 jobs that could be automated with AI in coming years, according to CEO Arvind Krishna.

In an interview with Bloomberg, he said he “could easily see” 30% of some 26,000 non-customer-facing roles to be replaced by AI over a five-year period.

The tech giant would look to automate back-office jobs such as those in HR, where hiring would be stopped or slowed. Routine tasks such as moving employees between departments or providing employment verification will “likely” be fully automated.

However, more encompassing HR roles such as evaluating workforce composition and productivity will likely not be replaced over the next decade, he added.

IBM told Bloomberg that any job reductions would include positions vacated by attrition.

The company is already laying off some 5,000 workers, following a trend in the tech sector with cutbacks at Google, Microsoft and most recently, Dropbox. Krishna said IBM hired 7,000 in the first quarter.

For IBM, the pivot towards AI automation comes at a time when Krishna has been repositioning the company around software and services like hybrid cloud. He divested slower-growth businesses including legacy infrastructure unit Kyndryl and is considering selling its weather business that owns the Weather Channel and Weather Underground.