Dell To Cut 12,500 Jobs to focus on AI: Can AI replace your Job?

Dell Technologies announced recently that it would cut 12,500 jobs to restructure its sales team. The move aims to integrate a new group in the sales team, to focus on artificial intelligence products and services.

Bill Scannell and John Byrne, sales executives at Dell, reportedly stated that the company is “getting leaner” and that it is “streamlining layers of management” and “reprioritising” its investment.

In addition to its Artificial intelligence-driven focus on sales, the company would also change how data centre sales are approached.

In early 2023, Dell had laid off 13,000 employees as part of its major workforce reduction. As per Dell’s regulatory filing in February 2023, the company has about 120,000 full-time employees globally.

The Texas-based company has seen a surge in investments over the past years due to its high-powered servers that can run AI workloads. However, the company feels uneasy about the time it would take to benefit from its AI investments, which include expensive services and graphic processing units.

This has not stopped the companies from integrating their operations with Artificial Intelligence which can lead to layoffs.

This is an ongoing trend across many tech companies in the world.

Google and Duolingo

Google is faced with a similar dilemma. The firm which has been focusing on AI advancements with its Gemini and Google Bard, is planning to implement AI in its company operations.

If they go ahead with their plan, it is reported that the move would see Google lay off around 30,000 employees across its ad sales division. Google had fired 12,000 employees at the start of the year 2023.

Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, stated that AI-powered automation drives efficiency, by eliminating repetitive tasks, resulting in a reduction in workforce in operations and marketing at 10-15 per cent in employee cost.

Duolingo, the language training app, has reportedly fired 10 per cent of its contract workers as part of its AI integration.

Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn reportedly revealed in a recent shareholding letter that the company’s adoption of GenAI would enable it to generate content such as texts, speeches, and images. He stated that the AI-focused approach helps the company create language-learning show scripts, at a faster pace.

The situation in India

In India, the fintech (firm) Paytm has given the pink slip to more than 1000 employees across many departments as part of its cost-cutting measures. Though the move was undertaken after its payment arm, Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) was hammered by RBI for failing to comply with its regulations, it is also aimed at integrating Artificial Intelligence which deemed certain roles in the company surplus.

It is stated that many companies have hired employees abundantly during the COVID-19 pandemic cycle and that organisations are looking forward to reducing their workforce through AI automation in the IT hiring market in India.

Due to the impact of AI, Companies like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix have reduced their job postings to almost 90 per cent in India in 2023. This is in comparison to 2022 as per a survey.

Experts across the world believe that these are early signs of job displacement in the coming years, as the emergence of AI would make certain jobs and roles redundant.

Job Creation and Upskilling

A study by McKinsey Global Institute stated by 2030, AI could contribute to the creation of 20 million to 50 million new jobs globally.

It also emphasises the need for reskilling and upskilling programs to match up to AI’s influence.

The Union Government's budget in 2024 stated that the government will focus on upskilling and reskilling in automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. They also believe that in the coming years, AI will also produce a lot of job opportunities in the manufacturing sector.

Some are very optimistic about the changes.  Deloitte's AI Executive, Rohit Tandon stated that the future belongs to AI-human collaboration and not the replacement of humans with AI. He sees a future where technology empowers the workforce.

Similarly, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke stated that AI will not replace developers but will create more jobs.