IBNS-CMEDIA: IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna has fuelled concerns over job losses due to rapid technological advancement, acknowledging that some roles will be eliminated by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom while expressing optimism about the creation of new jobs.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Krishna said call centre-type roles are likely to be among the most impacted as AI adoption accelerates.
“I think 50 per cent of call centre jobs, simple document-matching jobs, or people working on internal help desks such as IT and HR will go away,” Krishna said.
“There is going to be some job displacement. I think 5 to 10 per cent job displacement is likely,” he added.
Krishna stressed that companies now have a responsibility to reskill affected employees.
“The onus is on us to make sure we can give them other skills—upskilling or reskilling—so that they can move into productive jobs,” he said.
“That does not count the increase in jobs. There is going to be much more hiring and much higher productivity, but there will be some displacement,” the IBM CEO added.
Layoffs reported amid AI boom
Fitness technology company Peloton Interactive Inc. has decided to cut about 11 per cent of its workforce as part of an ongoing cost-cutting exercise, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The layoffs are expected to largely affect engineers working on technology development and enterprise-focused initiatives, the report said.
According to the source, who requested anonymity, Peloton Chief Executive Officer Peter Stern—who took over the role last year—briefed employees about the decision on Friday.
Peloton’s decision comes amid a broader wave of job cuts across the global technology sector, as companies restructure operations in response to slowing growth and the rapid adoption of AI.
Earlier this week, Amazon announced plans to cut approximately 16,000 jobs, marking another major round of layoffs as the e-commerce giant continues a sweeping restructuring effort.
