A little good news: IBM will triple hiring

quote:

---

(Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. said it will triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026, even as artificial intelligence appears to be weighing on broader demand for early-career workers.

While the company declined to disclose specific hiring figures, it said the expansion will be “across the board,” affecting a wide range of departments.

“And yes, it’s for all these jobs that we’re being told AI can do,” said Nickle LaMoreaux, IBM’s chief human resources officer, speaking at a conference this week in New York.

LaMoreaux said she overhauled entry-level job descriptions for software developers and other roles to make the case internally for the recruitment push.

“The entry-level jobs that you had two to three years ago, AI can do most of them,” she said at Charter’s Leading With AI Summit. “So, if you’re going to convince your business leaders that you need to make this investment, then you need to be able to show the real value these individuals can bring now. And that has to be through totally different jobs.”

The result is a different mix of duties for early-career workers at IBM. Since AI tools can handle most routine coding tasks, the company’s junior software developers now spend less time on that and more time working with customers. In the HR department, entry-level staffers now spend time intervening when HR chatbots fall short, correcting output and talking to managers as needed, rather than fielding every question themselves.

---