International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), a giant in the field of cloud computing and enterprise software, has just announced that it will cut thousands of employees globally. But that would be small compared to Apple's total.
As of December 31, 2024, IBM has about 270,000 employees worldwide.
A small portion of US workers may be affected, but the employment rate in this market is expected to remain unchanged from the same period last year, according to the spokesperson. The cut is part of an AI-powered human resource optimization strategy, aimed at increasing productivity and reducing operating costs.
The announcement came just days after Amazon announced plans to lay off about 14,000 employees, possibly up to 30,000, the largest cut in the group's history.
At the same time, many other giants such as Intel, UPS, Google are also narrowing the scale of human resources as automation and AI gradually replace office work.
However, IBM still reported above-expected profits in the most recent quarter, with software revenue increasing by 10%.
CEO Arvind Krishna affirmed that AI will not completely replace programmers but only increase work efficiency. He predicted that AI could write 20 30% of source code, not 90% as some other technology experts have commented.
The hiring wave in IBM shows a clear reality when AI is reshaping the technology industry, opening up new opportunities but also causing thousands of workers to enter a spiral of uncertainty.
