“Good Thing”: IBM Chief Says AI Will Replace “Clerical White Collar Work”

Mr Krishna forecasted what sort of jobs the tech will likely be displacing.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) trend has taken the world by storm. From passing medical and law exams to delivering speeches, AI has evolved so much that it even converses with users and offers solutions to their problems. Now speaking about AI systems and the explosion of language-based AI ChatGPT, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has stated that artificial intelligence is on a rapidly progressive pace to take over “clerical white-collar work”. 

In an interview with Financial Times, Mr Krishna forecasted what sort of jobs the tech will likely be displacing. He also said that he not only believes that the current AI models could already be coming for some jobs, but also that the world should probably welcome it in order to avoid a looming worldwide labour crisis. 

“I do think clerical white-collar work is going to be able to be replaced by this [AI],” the chairman and CEO of IBM told the outlet. 

Mr Krishna forecasted that fields like customer service, human resources and positions within finance and health care could all see automation – not years from now but in the current day. “I think [practical AI use] is here and now,” he said, adding, “We do have a shortage of labour in the real world and that’s because of a demographic issue that the world is facing… the United States is now sitting at 3.4% unemployment, the lowest in 60 years. So maybe we can find tools that replace some portions of labour, and it’s a good thing this time”.

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For health care and finance, it is the “regulatory work” that Mr Krishna said no longer needs to be done by people. “A big chunk of that could get automated using these techniques,” he told the outlet. The IBM chief also stated that “further out,” AI will likely be capable of managing “things in like drug discovery or in trying to finish up chemistry”.

As for human resources, Mr Krishna said that the tech could do 90% of data processing needed for “promoting people, hiring people, moving people” while the final judgement calls are still left in human hands. “There are hundreds of such processes inside every enterprise, so I do think clerical white collar work is going to be able to be replaced by this,” he said. 

According to Mr Krishna, AI taking over customer service could also get clients a “much better answer at maybe around half the current cost. Over time, it can get even lower than half, but it can take half out pretty quickly”.