In AI fight between Pichai’s Google and Nadella’s Microsoft, Arvind Krishna’s IBM (and many others) will bleed jobs

WASHINGTON: Artificial Intelligence (AI) will replace at least 7800 people in the company, the technology giant IBM indicated on Monday, sending shock waves through the global job market akin to the dropping of a tactical nuclear weapon.

IBM’s Indian-American CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News that the company expects to pause hiring for roles that could be replaced with artificial intelligence in the coming years. Consequently, hiring in back-office functions — such as human resources and accounting— will be suspended or slowed.

“These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers… I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period,” he said. A 30 per cent AI takeover would mean roughly 7,800 jobs lost.