As Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius put it, "Using data on occupational tasks in both the US and Europe, <strong>we find that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. </strong>Extrapolating our estimates globally suggests that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation" as up to "<strong>two thirds of occupations could be partially automated by AI." </strong>.
While Dropbox's layoffs were lateral, and meant to open up space for more AI linked hires, in the case of IBM, it is AI itself that is making workers redundant.
As Bloomberg reports, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the company expects to pause hiring for roles it thinks could be replaced with artificial intelligence in the coming years.
"I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period." That would mean roughly 7,800 jobs lost.
Part of any reduction would include not replacing roles vacated by attrition, an IBM spokesperson said.
Krishna's plan marks one of the largest workforce strategies announced in response to the rapidly advancing technology; it certainly won't be the last as virtually all companies follow in IBM's footsteps and layoffs tens if not hundreds of millions of workers in the coming years.
While some HR functions, such as evaluating workforce composition and productivity, probably won't be replaced over the next decade, it is only a matter of time before these roles are also replaced by AI. IBM currently employs about 260,000 workers and continues to hire for software development and customer-facing roles.
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