IBM CEO warns: First jobs lost to AI will be ‘white collar’

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM CEO and chairman Arvind Krishna has words of warning to back office “white collar” workers: Your jobs will be the first lost to the rapidly growing use of artificial intelligence.

“I actually believe that the first set of roles that will get impacted are — what I call — back office, white-collar work,” said Krishna in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

Why?

Productivity, said the top executive at Big Blue, which employs thousands of people across North Carolina.

Emerging generative AI and large language models such as ChatGPT could “make every enterprise process more productive,” he explained.

“That means you can get the same work done with fewer people. That’s just the nature of productivity. I actually believe that the first set of roles that will get impacted are — what I call — back office, white-collar work.”