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IBM pushes to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its workforce as the company prepares to cut thousands of jobs. But while CEO Arvind Krishna has committed to replacing around 7,800 positions with AI, insiders express skepticism about whether the technology is truly ready to take on such a monumental task.
The company previously started to cut thousands of jobs as part of a “workforce rebalancing” effort to integrate automation and AI. Sources within IBM, who spoke anonymously with The Register, have raised concerns that the company’s AI tools are insufficient for replacing seasoned employees.
“The whole outsourced to AI thing is a myth that somehow our upper echelon of execs believes exists right now,” noted one employee, referred to as Casey. For him, IBM’s generative AI offering, Watsonx, is lagging significantly behind competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“A WatsonX chatbot is years behind ChatGPT,” Blake, another source, added. “Its web interface was broken until July 2024, and no one in the entire organization uses it.”
IBM’s strategy appears to mirror traditional outsourcing practices by prioritizing cost savings over maintaining an experienced workforce. Alex, another insider, remarked, “With AI tools writing that code for us… why pay for senior-level staff when you can promote a youngster who doesn’t really know any better at a much lower price?”
Yet, instead of AI, IBM is outsourcing jobs to countries like India, which is affecting organizational competency.
IBM employees observed that many current developers lack experience with AI tools due to an internal ban on using externally sourced large language models (LLMs). “We’re told that only around one percent of developers who work on the product deal with AI and LLMs,” Casey stated.
This lack of familiarity with advanced AI tools is a fence gate to Big Blue’s long-standing competitiveness in an industry increasingly reliant on these technologies. The coding industry more and more depends on this tech. And these workers at IBM see that.
It raises alarms about the potential hollowing out of technical expertise within the company. As Blake pointed out, “Senior software engineers stopped being developed in the US around 2012.”
From a survey on StackOverflow, the average age of software developers is rising while the number of learning junior developers is decreasing. IBM could face a serious shortage of skilled programmers in the coming years without new talents.
“If it weren’t for LLMs, there would be a serious lack of programmers in the next five years,” Blake stated.
IBM reported taking a $400 million charge related to workforce rebalancing but insists that it expects employment levels to remain stable by year-end. This added anxiety and fears about job security, as well as frustration among employees over management’s reliance on less experienced staff and outdated infrastructure.
The company’s situation serves as a microcosm of broader trends as companies increasingly turn to AI. It begs the question of whether IBM’s integration of AI presents opportunities for innovation and efficiency or risks job security and organizational competency.
This also acts as a wake-up call for professionals and students aiming to enter the workforce. Emerging fields such as AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing are now the industry’s focal points, and upskilling in these areas is no longer an option but a necessity.
