AI comes to grab jobs: IBM joins global workforce of layoffs, affecting at least 2700 people

On November 5th, CNBC published a blog post stating that IBM will undergo a new round of layoffs in the fourth quarter of 2025, which is expected to affect the number of employees and account for a “low single digit percentage” of the global workforce.

According to the latest annual report released by IBM, as of the end of 2024, the company has approximately 270000 employees worldwide. Based on this data, even the lowest 1% layoff rate means that 2700 people will lose their jobs.

However, IBM also emphasized that although this layoff may affect some domestic positions in the United States, the company expects its total number of employees in the United States to be basically the same as the same period last year, indicating that the company may be recruiting in other fields while cutting some positions.

This layoff is not an isolated case, but rather the overall trend in the current technology industry. Several tech giants, including Amazon and Meta, have recently been downsizing their workforce, with executives generally hoping to increase their reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve productivity.

For example, Amazon announced in October that it would lay off 14000 employees, while Meta’s AI department also cut 600 positions. The industry generally believes that using AI to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become one of the core strategies of giants.

IBM itself has long been exploring the reshaping of human resources through AI. CEO Arvind Krishna revealed in May this year that the AI system has taken over the work of approximately 200 employees in the human resources department. He stated that by replacing repetitive labor with automation, the company was able to reallocate resources and instead recruit more urgently needed salespeople and software developers to drive business growth.

It is worth noting that as IBM announced its layoffs, its own business performance remained strong. The third quarter financial report released by the company on October 22 showed that its profit and revenue exceeded market expectations, with software business revenue achieving a year-on-year growth of 10%. Since taking over as CEO in 2020, Krishna has successfully helped IBM expand its revenue base, and this layoff is seen as part of its ongoing efforts to optimize the company’s structure and focus on core business strategies.