Heaptalk, Jakarta — International Business Machines (IBM) declared to carry out layoff for its marketing and communications department.
Based on its official statement, IBM aimed to slash 8,000 workforces and has cut 4,000 emlployees. The job cuts come as this behemoth technology corporation continues to change jobs with artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies.
As stated by CEO Arvind Krishna last December, “Recruitment process, particularly in back-office functions such as human resources, will be stopped or slowed down. I could easily see around 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over five years,”
Amidst the rapid evolution of AI adoption in the technology industry, IBM is trying to take advantage of the existing momentum to remain competitive with other competitors, such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, which have already developed AI.
In May 2023, IBM announced WatsonX as a development studio that companies can use to train machine learning models. The generative AI business and WatsonX products are claimed to double in Q4 2023.
“IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge that would represent a deficient single-digit percentage of IBM’s global workforce, and we expect to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with. This rebalancing is driven by increased productivity and our continued push to align our workforce with the skills most in demand among our clients, especially areas such as AI and hybrid cloud,” IBM’s spokesperson said.
IBM and its business increment
Instead of gaining a business slump, the corporation revealed its performance last year by generating US$61.9 billion in revenue, uplifting about 3%, and US$11.2 billion in free cash flow, growing around US$1.9 billion year-over-year.
Furthermore, in constant currency, software revenue improved by more than 5% as clients turned to its software capabilities across hybrid cloud, data and AI, automation, transaction processing, and security.
On the other hand, IBM’s consulting unit also demonstrated promising growth of up to 6%. The company capitalized on the growing need for digital transformation and AI deployment expertise, leveraging our consulting services in data and technology consulting, cloud modernization, application operations, and business transformation.
IBM’s revenue enhancement and cash generation enabled the company to invest substantially in the business and deliver value to its shareholders. In 2023, the company spent nearly US$7 billion on research and development, more than US$5 billion to acquire nine companies, and more than US$6 billion to stockholders through dividends.
