The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in layoffs by Zoom. Can the current tech fad give us mass terminations devised by AI?
ChatGPT can already write general layoff notes, and Microsoft Corp. plans to roll out 365 Copilot to Excel, which could help with financial planning. A French startup called Pigment SAS is now testing generative AI tools explicitly for chief financial officers.
The product, called Pigment AI, is based on the OpenAI software. Place chatbots within spreadsheets and dashboards used to create financial plans. The software is designed to chew through your company’s data and spew out answers to questions like: OR How can I double my earnings next year?
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Romain Niccoli, co-CEO of Pigment, said:
Almost every company today is eager to incorporate the latest versions of AI to increase profits or avoid destruction by superhuman computers. They aren’t always fast enough.
As a result, many companies may be interested in this sample question. Pigment’s chatbot can answer the following questions:
You don’t have to be an AI to speculate that a recommendation could be labor cost savings. Or just cut people.
Businesses are gearing up for AI to automate jobs. IBM’s CEO sees his 30% of back-office functions going away within his five years, and is suspending hiring for such roles. Microsoft Copilot saves a lot of time for data analysts and other spreadsheet workers. Alternatively, you can reduce the need to employ as many of them as possible.
Pigment is testing the AI service with a small number of customers, but no pricing has been set yet. The startup has raised $164 million in funding since it was founded in 2019.
AI can inform a company’s decision to lay off an employee, but Niccoli said that ultimately it is the humans who make the decision. “It’s about making sure you understand the consequences,” he said. “It’s not something you decide for you.”
Even if one day they get fired with the help of AI, they may not know it.
big story
Concerns about AI are growing. The White House has backed the new rules, and the UK’s antitrust watchdog has launched a review. AI is deployed on the battlefield without a full understanding of the consequences. But billionaire venture capitalist Binod Khosla said the slowdown could pose another problem.
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