Show the numbers, AK, show the numbers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-ceo-says-ai-has-replaced-hundreds-of-workers-but-created-new-programming-sales-jobs-54ea6b58
The tech company promises higher total employment as it reinvests resources toward roles like software development
By: Belle Lin
May 6, 2025 1:34 pm ET
International Business Machines Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said the tech giant has used artificial intelligence, and specifically AI agents, to replace the work of a couple hundred human resources workers. As a result, it has hired more programmers and salespeople, he said.
Krishna’s comments on Monday come as businesses sort through the workforce impacts of AI and AI agents, the independent bots that can autonomously perform tasks like analyze spreadsheets, conduct research and draft emails.
While there haven’t yet been widespread layoffs or downsizing as a result of AI across the economy, some business leaders have said they are holding down head count as they investigate the use of the technology.
Meanwhile, the information-technology workforce has continued to shrink as AI weighs on hiring and some workers leave the field.
For IBM, which this week hosts its annual Think conference in Boston, AI adoption has led it to boost hiring in some functions.
“While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows, our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas,” Krishna told The Wall Street Journal.
Those areas—which include software engineering, sales and marketing—are what Krishna calls “critical thinking” focused domains, where people need to do things that “face up or against other humans, as opposed to just doing rote process work.”
IBM didn’t say over what period of time its job reductions occurred.
Also this week, IBM launched services that allow businesses to build their own AI agents, adding on to a slew of similar offerings from tech players such as Amazon.com, OpenAI, Nvidia and Microsoft. The services also help companies manage multiple agents, as well as the private business data that powers them.
Krishna said that IBM’s services are meant to be additive because they can work with AI agents customers might be using from those vendors. Like the company’s approach to letting customers use their preferred cloud-computing provider, IBM is taking a “we want you to use what’s appropriate” attitude toward AI, he added.
IBM has been building its business enabling tech transformation, booking $6 billion worth of consulting contracts from companies looking to use generative AI. But its consulting and software business is subject to headwinds such as changes in the macroeconomic outlook.
Krishna believes the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on IBM’s business is “very limited,” partly because its mainframe computers and quantum systems are built in the U.S. The company said last month that it plans to invest $150 billion in the U.S. over the next five years.
A reduction in demand from tariffs, however, could hit discretionary spending in the company’s consulting business, he said.
“If the impact is within three to four percent, you actually can grit and manage through it,” Krishna said. “If the impact is going to be more like 10 percent, then that requires a lot more hardheaded management decisions.”