New Delhi: For some time market experts have been warning about the loss of jobs on a mass scale due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and suggested a few measures to balance the situation. Now in the same context a report says that the American tech company International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has laid off around 8000 employees adding that most of the job cuts are from the company’s Human Resources (HR) department. Just recently IBM reportedly replaced 200 HR roles with AI agents. The company argued that the move was part of an automation push. It is said that IBM has developed software that can handle tasks such as organising information answering questions from employees and managing internal paperwork. These programmes are meant to take care of repetitive work that doesn’t need much human decision making. In a recent interview IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna had indicated at this transformation. Arvind Krishna explained that AI and automation were being used to streamline certain enterprise processes and make teams more efficient. “At the time the total number of employees at IBM had actually increased as savings from automation were being invested in other parts of the business like software development marketing and sales”. “While we have done a huge amount of work inside IBM on leveraging AI and automation on certain enterprise workflows our total employment has actually gone up. It gives you more investment to put into other areas” Krishna was reported as saying. Meanwhile presenting its part IBM said that it isnt shrinking across the board but only shifting its focus. Certain areas like where the job requires creativity strategic thinking or strong people skills like marketing or software development are still for the human resources whereas roles that involve routine repetitive work especially in back-office functions are at higher risk of being replaced by AI. Nickle LaMoreaux IBM’s Chief Human Resources Officer has said that the use of AI doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs will disappear. “Very few roles will be completely replaced. Instead AI will take over the repetitive parts of the job freeing up employees to focus on areas that need human judgment and decision-making.”