Employers who once considered artificial intelligence to replace workers are rehiring workers, CNBC reported on Wednesday (July 1).
The trend comes amid investor concerns about the viability of the AI boom, the report said.
Among the companies that pivoted was Ford, which began rehiring hundreds of engineers to address quality issues that automated systems weren’t able to address, according to the report.
“Artificial intelligence is a great tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” said Charles Poon, Ford’s vice president of automotive hardware engineering, according to the report.
Other companies reconsidering their AI plans and focusing on human workers include IBM and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), according to the report.
IBM announced plans to triple its hiring of entry-level employees after replacing human resources functions with AI. According to the report, the tool handled about 94% of routine requests, but was unable to respond to the remaining 6%, which involved ethical dilemmas.
“If we don’t continue to invest in entry-level hiring, what will happen in three to five years,” said Nickle Lamoreaux, IBM’s chief human resources officer, according to the report. “There are no pipelines. The wells just go dry.”
Meanwhile, CBA cut more than 40 members of its customer service team last year and replaced them with AI voice bots. But that system was unable to handle business, leading to an increase in calls, and the bank reversed its layoffs, the report said.
“Getting the CBA to reverse these cuts is a major victory,” the Australian Financial Sector Union said in a statement, according to the report.
The bank later admitted it “did not properly take into account all relevant business considerations” when announcing the job cuts and said it “should have been more thorough”. [its] “Assessment of required roles,” the report states.
Other companies are also leveraging AI to create new jobs, PYMNTS reported on June 3.
“The pattern emerging at Box, Google, IBM, and others is primarily non-movement,” the report said. “This is a new organizational layer that sits between the foundational model and business operations, with roles that require both technical depth and judgment to enable AI to be leveraged within a specific company context. This layer did not exist three years ago. It is now one of the fastest growing parts of the labor market.”
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