IBM will freeze hiring as it expects about 7,800 jobs to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coming years, the tech giant's CEO has said. In an interview with Bloomberg News, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said he could "easily see" nearly one-third of the company's non-customer-facing roles being replaced in the next five years. "These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers," Krishna said in the interview published on Tuesday. "I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period." Back-office employees are only a small portion of IBM's 260,000 or so workers and the company, based in Armonk, New York, has continued to fill roles even after letting go of about 5,000 workers in other areas, according to Bloomberg.

Krishna's statements are an early indication of how widespread generative AI's impact could be inside corporations. Chegg, the online learning company, also said on Monday night that the viral chatbot, ChatGPT, is affecting its customer growth rate, causing its stock price to tank. While AI is likely to impact the workforce, economic analysts also cautioned that it's still too early to tell how disruptive it'll be.

A report that was released by Forrester last month predicts that cognitive technologies will take over some 7% of jobs in the United States in less than a decade (by 2025). Notably, the report asserts that the trend will make itself felt five years from now. "By 2021, a disruptive tidal wave will begin. Solutions powered by AI/cognitive technology will displace jobs, with the biggest impact felt in transportation, logistics, customer service, and consumer services," says Forrester VP Brian Hopkins. Forrester estimates around 6% of jobs will be eliminated by as early as 2021.