In 2023, IBM made its mark by announcing the redundancy of almost 8,000 employees, mainly in human resources, to automate these functions using artificial intelligence. But against all odds, this strategy led to a wave of new hires… again because of AI.
AI upsets the employment balance at IBM
In early 2023, IBM made a radical decision to replace thousands of jobs, mainly in support functions, with artificial intelligence solutions. The stated aim was clear: to automate up to 30% of repetitive tasks, particularly in human resources, and thus achieve significant productivity savings. This strategy, far from being isolated, was part of a worldwide wave of rationalisation in which other tech giants, such as Google and Spotify, were also making massive redundancies.
But IBM took the experiment further than its competitors. Thanks to the AskHR solution, an AI-powered conversational agent, 94% of routine HR management tasks have been automated, from holiday processing to payroll management and employee documentation. This automation has enabled the company to generate $3.5 billion in productivity across more than 70 different business lines.
However, what followed surprised even IBM’s top management. Far from reducing its workforce permanently, the company saw its total number of employees rise again after the wave of redundancies. Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, explained this to the Wall Street Journal, “While we’ve done a tremendous amount of work to leverage AI, our total employment has actually increased because it has allowed us to invest more in other areas.”
Indeed, automation has freed up financial and human resources, which have been redeployed towards high value-added sectors. IBM, for example, has massively recruited software engineers, sales people and marketing specialists – jobs where creativity, critical thinking and human interaction are irreplaceable by the machine. Repetitive and predictable tasks have been entrusted to AI, but the need for human skills has exploded in strategic areas.
Towards a transformation of the labour market
IBM’s example illustrates a fundamental trend: AI is not just eliminating jobs, it is creating new ones, often with higher qualifications and better pay. But this transformation is not without its problems. The jobs most exposed to automation, such as support functions, are being replaced, while demand is exploding for profiles capable of managing, designing and selling AI solutions.
IBM is not an isolated case. Other companies, such as Duolingo and certain customer service platforms, have also tried to massively replace their staff with chatbots, sometimes with mixed results, forcing them to rehire specialists to compensate for the limits of automation.
The success of automation at IBM is based on the company’s ability to reinvest the savings made in growth sectors. The case of AskHR is emblematic: in 2024, the platform handled more than 11.5 million interactions, with a customer satisfaction rate (NPS) that rose from -35 to +74 in just a few years. But despite these successes, only 6% of requests still require human intervention, proof that the transformation is not complete and that certain skills are still essential.
The IBM case raises the question of the future of work in the age of AI. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, almost 92 million jobs could disappear by 2030 as a result of automation, but new professions are already emerging at high speed. The challenge for companies and employees will be to anticipate these changes, train and adapt to an ever-changing labour market. At IBM, AI has not only eliminated jobs: it has forced the company to rethink its HR strategy in depth and reinvent the contours of modern employment.