Tech giant IBM’s chief executive Arvind Krishna has said he will temporarily suspend hiring as he expects around 7,800 jobs to be replaced by artificial intelligence in the coming years.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, he commented that nearly a third of the company’s non-customer-facing positions will be replaced over the next five years.

“These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers. I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period.”

Krishna said in the interview published on Tuesday.

Around 26 000 people in the so-called office of the company are in positions that do not include a diplomatic contract with clients. According to Arvind Krishna, 30% of these xopa can be easily replaced using inĸuent and automation in the next 5 years. That is to say, we are talking about oĸl 7-8 thousand jobs.

An IBM spokesman told AFP that there was no general pause in hiring, but that the firm was “very selective in filling jobs that don’t directly affect our customers or technology.”

The fears of the vast majority of employees in tech companies are starting to come true, and some analysts fear that AI could soon lead to mass layoffs. Others, however, argue that technology’s ability to improve productivity and complement human workers will create jobs and whole new industries. But can we be optimistic when AI is replacing the need for human labour en masse?