IBM's motto is 'Think' – its CEO reckons AI can do that as well as some workers
- Reference: 1683002350
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/05/02/ibm_ai_back_office_jobs/
- Source link:
Speaking to Bloomberg , CEO Arvind Krishna [1]said he thinks up to 30 percent of IBM's back-office jobs – around 7,800 roles – could be replaced by AI.
Krishna said he thinks Big Blue will slow hiring in those roles in the next five years, as AI capable of replacing departing staff emerges.
[2]
The CEO didn't specify the kind of AI he thinks can replace people. However back-office staff are sometimes described as "process workers" – folks whose work often requires them to undertake defined activities rather than exercise more abstract thinking.
[3]
[4]
Enterprise software often aims to streamline such processes, and these days often uses AI to make that happen.
Krishna's remarks may therefore not be evoking the prospect of an HR-bot using large language models and generative AI to conduct performance reviews for Big Blue's staff, but rather the impact of improvements to other tools.
[5]
The CEO's plans appear to be confined to the back office – not the research or customer-facing staff who are expected to display creative and/or abstract thinking. The slogan probably emerges intact.
[6]IBM pauses counting its billions to trim Red Hat staff
[7]IBM starts renting cloudy bare metal Linux almost-mainframes
[8]IBM, Kyndryl cut jobs even after cutting ties
[9]Alibaba to separate into six parts. Take that HP and IBM, with your puny two-way splits
But Big Blue replacing people with AI is still awkward. This is, after all, the company that names its annual leadership gabfest "Think" and celebrates [10]"A Culture of Think" .
"At IBM, one of the key elements of its culture and an important factor in its longevity is its willingness not only to tolerate but to encourage radical thinking," states an article celebrating the tech industry titan's 100th anniversary.
"IBM celebrates its so-called wild ducks," the article continues. "As Bernard Meyerson, an IBM Research Fellow who joined the company in 1980, puts it, 'Most places have a history of shooting disruptive people like me. IBM isn't perfect, but if you're willing to have the battle, and you base your argument on data, you can win'."
Krishan's remarks suggest IBM's already got the data it wants about the comparative costs and productivity of people and AI, and is going to shoot people who are non-disruptive by design.
[11]
Such thinking is, in the present moment of enthusiasm for AI, completely non-radical. ®
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[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-01/ibm-to-pause-hiring-for-back-office-jobs-that-ai-could-kill
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZFDfxaFeXhCobLZubbtSpwAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFDfxaFeXhCobLZubbtSpwAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFDfxaFeXhCobLZubbtSpwAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZFDfxaFeXhCobLZubbtSpwAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/24/ibm_red_hat_layoffs/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/21/linuxone_bare_metal_ibm_cloud/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/04/ibm_and_kyndryl_are_cutting/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/29/alibaba_splits_into_six_companies/
[10] https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/think_culture/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZFDfxaFeXhCobLZubbtSpwAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
By the book
> IBM's slogan has been a single word: "Think"
When I was employed by one (small) part of the company, thinking was frowned upon. The approved methodology was to follow the process. Not to come up with your own solution.
IBM Announcement
After extensive analysis, Arvind Krishna has been replaced by AI because his role does not require any original thinking. And he is too old.
Re: IBM Announcement
Everyone with an Indian sounding name is already an AI. They just choose the names so you think: No one has ever heard of him - Oh, he must be from far away. Instead of the truth that he is a shell script with an AI generated ID photo.
"and you base your argument on data"
...and you base your argument on data [that proves to management you will make them a fuck-ton of money as opposed to a ton of money]...
FTFY.
Why dont they just fire anybody with a three letter title - that will save millions and nobody will notice
"At IBM, one of the key elements of its culture and an important factor in its longevity is its willingness not only to tolerate but to encourage radical thinking,"
ONLY if it makes them money. If you try this approach to anything else outside of R&D you get slapped down. IBM is all about process.
If you can fit something into a process, they WILL try and automate it. And that is where your trouble really starts (and it's something the C-Suite just don't seem to comprehend, and not just in IBM). Customers have their own 'processes' to follow. Not all customers look and operate the same. Any automation is therefore different on a per-client basis. Yes, the most common tasks may be automated, but anything more complex is increasingly harder if you try and come up with a 'one size fits all' solution.
Now add in this. The automation framework is not simply given to the customer. What happens when you part ways? What happens to all that wonderful automation you had that replaced all the workers you used to have that knew how to operate your company? Who do you have that will be able to maintain the automation code you do manage to keep your hands on? What if someone claims intellectual property over that code?
Also LIFE is not prescriptive. Things change all the time. The more complex automation becomes, the more complex the code, the more you are relying on a SMALL number of people to update that code. That small number of people, do you give them priority providing new features, or simply maintaining functionality for the older code bases? Need a quick fix? Good luck with that (I'm already seeing this issue).
So AK's estimates that 1 back office person will be able to do the work of 1.43 people with the help of AI assistance. If you think about the changes in back office work since moving from paper to computer, it's probably a higher ratio than that. So in the grand scheme of things, the change is not that different than what's gone on before.
And AI for the back office has yet to proven - there will be plenty of bugs to work out.
Back office jobs, in general, have been getting outsourced for a while, often abroad. If those jobs were brought back home and people employed to manage the AI doing the work instead, that would be a plus. Less opportunity for PI leakage and fraud as well.
Blig Blue?
It probably can, but not IBM's AI, they'll need to buy it in from a modern company.
I can think of a few people in my company...
... that can be replaced by a simple shell script!
No AI needed as they're incapable of original thinking!