AI mania has been felt across all sectors of the global economy but the negative effect of the technology on all manners of the human workforce is under threat and the latest people to feel the buzz are workers at IBM.
AI will be replacing around 7,800 jobs in non-customer-facing roles in the next five years, according to Arvind Krishna, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of technology company International Business Machine Corporation (IBM) in an interview with Bloomberg News covered by Aljazeera.
Krishna disclosed that around 26,000 workers are operating in non-customer-facing roles and around 30% of them will be replaced by automation and artificial intelligence.
Due to the impact of AI in the world of work and possible layoffs in the future, IBM has halted any addition to its more than 260,000 headcount across the globe.
The executive’s comments come during a time where AI-powered technology has taken the world by storm.
AI-powered technology has brought mixed feelings to several analysts
Many technology analysts believe that OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a chatbot that thrives on natural language processing to create humanlike responses to questions and can compose written content (emails, code, essays, social media posts, and articles) could replace several jobs.
Many people have begun questioning why there would be a need for Mathematicians, Interpretators/Translators, Poets/Creative Writers/Lyricists, Web Designers, Journalists/Reports/News Analysts, Lawyers/Paralegals, Teachers, Accountants/Auditors, Graphic Designers, Customer Service Agents, Cashiers, Proofreaders, social media managers, recruiters, and clinical data managers when ChatGPT can provide quality responses in less than one minute.
With that said other analysts foresee improved productivity through the use of AI-powered technology and maintain that more jobs and industries will be created out of it.
AI technology already threatening security guard jobs
In April, Reuters reported that a robot security guard is on patrol in Switzerland. Developed by Ascento, a robotics company, the security guard is an autonomous two-wheeled robot that is performing guarding tasks for security company Securitas AG.
Video of the two-wheeled robot has been making rounds on YouTube and has been watched more than 10,000 times in less than a week. Switzerland is among the countries that pay workers under the securities and protection banner well. If Ascento’s robot performs far beyond expectations, there is a huge chance of news of massive layoffs making rounds across the globe in the not-too-distant future since the robots would not be demanding better conditions of service.
Stocks of some companies feeling the heat of AI’s dominance
CHGG is the ticker symbol of Chegg, an online learning company based in California. Dan Rosensweig, CEO of the company conceded in an earnings call on May 1 that since March, there has been an increased interest in ChatGPT by students, and this negatively impacted its customer growth rate.
CHGG opened the year on January 3 with a trading price of $25.73, reached a yearly high price of $26.67 on January 5, and closed the first quarter at $16.30. CHGG shed 37% of its value in Q1 2023. As of 17:00 UTC on May 3, CHGG was exchanging hands for $10.40 and was down by 60% year-to-date (YTD).
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