As one of the first major companies to confirm that it will stop hiring for jobs that can be filled by artificial intelligence, IBM said it does not plan to lay off any programmers because of its artificial intelligence technology. The company's CEO added that while some jobs are expected to be lost to artificial intelligence, the company will be hiring more employees.
Speaking at Fortune's CEO Initiative conference yesterday, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said (via Insider ) that he doesn't plan to fire any programmers because of artificial intelligence. "We will have more staff," he added.
Krishna believes that artificial intelligence will not make programmers unemployed, but will increase their work efficiency by 30%. This is consistent with similar studies concluding that AI will enhance most people’s jobs rather than replace them.
Krishna's assurances about the loss of AI-related jobs may come as a surprise since the CEO has previously said he expects about 30% of IBM jobs to be replaced by AI and automation within five years. This equates to approximately 7,800 jobs.
Krishna said that while he does expect to phase out back-office human resources positions, IBM will add more software engineering and sales positions than it will eliminate over the next three to four years. "There are about 8,000 positions added. There are 800 positions reduced. The first thing to automate is repetitive white-collar work."
The IBM boss said that while AI could take over 10 to 20 percent of "low-level" tasks, it was unlikely to automate someone's entire job.
Perhaps the most worrying study on the impact of artificial intelligence on employment came in March this year, which claimed that the technology could affect 300 million jobs worldwide. A recent study focused on generative AI concluded that AI could displace more than 2 million U.S. jobs by 2030, with more educated and higher-paid workers at greater risk.
IBM has also conducted research in this area. Its research found that 40% of the global workforce will have to learn new skills in the next three years due to the implementation of artificial intelligence. It concludes that "AI will not replace people - but people who use AI will replace people who don't".