International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna has ruled out job losses for any programmers due to artificial intelligence (AI).

“I don’t intend to get rid of a single one. I’ll get more,” Business Insider, an online media platform, reported, citing Krishna’s speech at the Fortune’s CEO Initiative conference.

Programmers will become 30% more productive because of AI, he added.
 
IBM will increase the number of software engineering and sales roles in the next three to four years but may phase out back-office HR roles.
 
“The increase was like 8,000. The decrease was like 800,” the report said, quoting the CEO.

Krishna believed AI could take over 10 to 20% of "lower level" tasks, but was unlikely to "automate away" an entire job.

In May, Krishna told Bloomberg that he expects the company to pause hiring for roles as roughly 7,800 jobs could be replaced by AI in the coming years.

In May, Goldman Sachs indicated that over 300 million jobs worldwide are likely to be disrupted by AI.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)