According to Arvind Krishna, the CEO of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), the company anticipates putting a hold on recruitment for positions that they believe may be supplanted by artificial intelligence in the near future.

In an interview, International Business Machines Corp. Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna announced that the company will halt or slow hiring for back-office functions, including human resources, in an effort to replace those roles with artificial intelligence over the next five years.

These non-customer-facing roles amount to about 26,000 workers, and Krishna predicts that 30% of those jobs could be replaced by AI and automation, leading to a loss of around 7,800 jobs, Bloomberg reported.

The reduction will include not replacing roles that are vacated by attrition. IBM’s spokesperson confirmed this.

Krishna’s plan represents one of the largest workforce strategies announced to respond to the rapidly advancing technology of AI.

Tasks such as employment verification letters and employee transfers between departments will likely be fully automated, while some HR functions, such as workforce composition and productivity evaluation, may not be replaced over the next decade, according to Krishna.

Written by staff