International Business Machines (IBM) has frozen hiring (although not entirely) with the expectation that artificial intelligence (AI) will fill 7,800 employee roles in the coming years. This is part of a broader acceleration of using AI to replace jobs across various industries after the ChatGPT craze started.
AI has been replacing jobs for years, but this year the topic is generating more of a buzz and companies are accelerating the replacement of employees with AI. IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna said that he could see 30% of IBM’s non-customer facing roles being replaced with AI over the next five years — that is approximately 26,000 jobs.
This sounds plausible. However, it is also concerning as governments and countries overall have not prepared for the mass unemployment that is likely to follow the increasingly aggressive roll-out of automation. The economy was built around employment and trade funded by salaries. Changing that will take careful planning and it will certain disrupt society in both good and bad ways.
