IBM plans to lay off a percentage of its global workforce this quarter. Thousands of jobs are at stake.
IBM plans to reduce its total workforce by a small percentage this quarter, according to the Wall Street Journal. The exact number of layoffs is unclear, but IBM employs approximately 270,000 people worldwide. Inevitably, thousands of jobs are at risk. The locations of the layoffs are also not yet known.
IBM frames the plans as routine, stating that it always wants the right people with the right skills in the right place. A review of the workforce through that lens is normal, it says, as is the rebalancing that follows.
Job vs. AI
IBM doesn’t say it explicitly, but the chance that AI plays a role is real. Several technology companies have cut their workforce or paused hiring. The efficiency gains that AI tools bring are often cited as a catalyst.
For example, Salesforce laid off 1,000 people earlier this year due to AI. Microsoft also announced that it would
IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna previously indicated that the company has deployed AI agents to take over the work of more than a hundred HR employees. Krishna stated at the time that this deployment of AI allowed the company to hire more people with other profiles.
Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that the rise of AI is indeed at the expense of many jobs, even though proponents of AI claim that this would not be the case. Jobs would not disappear, but change, was the mantra. In practice, both are true: the job content changes, and the efficiency gains do indeed cause people to lose their jobs.