These jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI according to IBM CEO Arvind Krishna
In an interview, Arvind Krishna points out jobs that are likely to be replaced by AI in the future. 50% of call centre jobs are going to be displaced, he said.
AI job loss fears and concerns are not unfounded. Arvind Krishna, who is the CEO of IBM, has acknowledged that AI or artificial intelligence will take away some jobs though he is also optimistic that there would more jobs to do in the future. But that would need upskilling and reskilling. In a recent interview, the IBM chief revealed a list of jobs/roles that are most at risk to be replaced by AI.
What jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI?
In an interview with Bloomberg, Arvind Krishna named call centre jobs as one of the roles that are highly likely to be replaced by AI. He said, "The call centre jobs, I could easily see 50% of them going away over time." Along with call centre roles, internal helpdesk roles are also on the radar, "People who are on internal helpdesks like IT, like HR. I think a number of those will go away."
Krishna also warned that roles involving repetitive tasks like matching numbers could see significant cuts, "If I look at jobs that are simply doing matching of documents to make sure that they're the same, like what happens in accounts payable and accounts receivable, I could see half of those going away."
He also spoke about corporate responsibility, saying, “The onus is on us to make sure we can give workers other skills.” Due to AI or the changing of the world, some jobs will inevitably disappear while new ones emerge, he stressed the importance of "upskilling and reskilling" so that those affected by layoffs can move into "productive roles".
Now, what are those productive roles or areas? Krishna gave the example of R&D as one of the productive areas. He said his company IBM, increased R&D and hired 10,000 people. "So there is going to be much more hiring in those areas that are much more productive (like R&D)." While acknowledging the job displacement that's coming, he said, "the net increase (of Jobs) more than offsets the job displacement."
Arvind Krishna took charge of IBM in 2020; since then IBM witnessed steady transformation to shift away from legacy businesses and accelerated in high-value segments. The company is focusing more on generative AI, hybrid cloud, and software-based services, which it sees as key to its future. The CEO has earlier said that AI is already having an impact inside IBM, revealing that AI tools have taken over work equal to about 200 human resources employees.