AI

Here is how AI is impacting white-collar jobs and increasing GDP

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna stated that artificial intelligence (AI) will initially damage white-collar, back-office positions. However, he also stated that AI will supplement and improve human productivity, increasing economic development.

According to Krishna, in CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia," generative AI and huge language models can "make every enterprise process more productive."

"This means you can do the same amount of work with fewer people." That's just the way productivity works. "I believe that the first set of roles to be impacted will be — what I call — back office, white-collar work," he remarked.

Krishna, who became CEO of IBM in April 2020 and chairman in January 2021, stated that AI and hybrid cloud are important technologies for the future. In May, the business unveiled WatsonX, an AI platform that allows clients to design, train, and deploy machine learning models.

Krishna also claimed that artificial intelligence (AI) will play an essential role in the future as the working-age population declines: "So you need to get productivity, otherwise the quality of life will fall." And I believe AI is the only solution."

According to a Bloomberg story from May, Krishna stated that IBM will halt hiring and replace 7,800 employees in sectors such as human resources with AI and automation. He now thinks, though, that AI will operate alongside those people.

"So, I said we won’t backfill those [white-collar] roles for the next five years." However, digital labor or AI bots complement and work alongside people doing the same task. So that's where the [number] 7,800 came from," Krishna said to CNBC's Martin Soong.

Krishna further asserted that AI's influence on the workforce is "augmenting" rather than "displacing" and will raise GDP, making us all feel better.