American tech giant IBM expects to pause hiring for roles as roughly 7,800 jobs could be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coming years.
On Monday, CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News that hiring for jobs that can be done by AI will be suspended or slowed.
This applies especially for back-office functions such as human resources where duties like documenting employee moves to different departments and writing employment verification letters will likely be among the first to be handed over to AI.
Krishna added that 30% of non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automations in five years.
Meanwhile, jobs focused on interacting with customers and developing software should still be safe, according to the CEO.
His comment comes at a time when AI has caught the imagination of people around the world after the launch of Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI’s viral chatbot, ChatGPT, in November last year.
At the moment IBM clarified that there was no blanket hiring ‘pause’ in place.
‘IBM is being deliberate and thoughtful in our hiring with a focus on revenue-generating roles, and we’re being very selective when filling jobs that don’t directly touch our clients or technology. We are actively hiring for thousands of positions right now,’ IBM told Metro.co.uk.
Last month, a new study revealed that approximately 80% of the US workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by AI.
Around 19% of workers are expected to see at least 50% of their tasks impacted by the introduction of AI tools like ChatGPT.
Individuals holding Bachelor’s, Master’s, and professional degrees are more at risk of losing their jobs to AI than those without formal educational credentials.
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