The chickens that enter through the chickens that come out. IBM was one of the main protagonists in the Waves of mass layoffs globally Two years ago, and now it is again for the consequence of making this decision: having even more workers.
The layoffs. In January 2023 IBM joined the Gray days In the technological sector. Google announced the departure of 12,000 of its employeesX (old twitter) fired 83% of its workforce in Spainand Spotify said goodbye to 600 workers.
On the IBM side, I know They completely paralyzed hiring and the dismissal of 7,800 workers was formalized. IBM CEO itself explained That his company would cover artificial intelligence, affirming at least 30% of its workforce was replaceable.
The consequences. IBM talked about how they could do without workers by replacing them for AI, but not about the people necessary to operate that AI. One of the executive directors of the technology, Arvind Krishna, collects to WSJ that the number of employees has increased after the wave of layoffs.
“Although we have done a huge amount of work within IBM to take advantage of AI and automation in certain business workflows, our total employment has actually risen, because we have managed to obtain more investment capacity to cover other areas,” Krishna told The Wall Street Journal.
The company has fired workers to replace them with artificial intelligence, but has also increased hiring in programmers and sales personnel. They have not transcended concrete numbers about how many hiring there have been and if they have really covered or not the 7,800 layoffs.
The automation to command. IBM has been fully trusting more than three years Askhran artificial intelligence solution that began to take shape in 2021 and that Today they use for processes related to human resources management (payrolls, employee documentation, vacation managed).
The company claims to have automated 94% of RRHH’s routine tasks, achieving productive improvements worth 3.5 billion dollars in recent years in more than 70 business areas. This significant saving in human resources, according to the company, is allowing them to invest in other areas.
An AI-FIRST company. On the IBM website we have detailed The official position of the company with AI. It is worthy of a Black Mirror chapter, but perfectly summarizes the state of AI in the workplace.
“As the chatbot learned and became smarter, our NPS (Net Promoter Score) began to increase. We added more functionalities, along with the ability to perform transactions. Askhr evolved to a digital assistant that allowed managers to transfer employees to another manager or initiate the quarterly promotion process. Everything was done directly in Askhr With just a few clicks.
In 2024, Askhr He managed more than 11.5 million interactions; 94% of them were resolved within the platform. That means that, of all the questions asked, only 6% needed to be derived from Askhr To a specialized partner in HR. The current NPS is +74, so we have traveled a long way from that -35. There are almost 90 automation integrated into Askhrand more on their way. Thanks to this, managers can make HR transactions 75% faster than before.
According to IMB, automating processes with AI has allowed you to be faster and more efficient, with a minimum need to derive HR personnel processes. One of the keys is in the evolution of the assistant: they have been using it in tests since 2017, and in 2025 it is already replacing humans.
IBM is not alone. The companies replacing workers for AI was not an experiment of 2023. There are already companies that have dispensed with 90% of their customer service departments by Chatbots, ensuring that it was the right decision. Duolingo started 2025 With replacement of human teamsome already shot them through the cylinder head and They ended looking for programmers on LinkedIn.
AI and its labor impact It is especially linked to process automation. Reports like ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2025’prepared by World Economic Forum, hope that by 2030 the Process automation destroy about 92 million jobs.
In Xataka | “I have three years of work”: more and more IA managers believe that AI will end up removing the position
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings