IBM notified its employees about upcoming staff reductions on Tuesday. The anticipated job cuts are likely to affect the company's marketing and communications divisions.

During a brief meeting lasting approximately seven minutes, Jonathan Adashek, IBM's chief communications officer, delivered the announcement to unit staff, reported CNBC. 

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told CNBC in December that the company was “massively upskilling all of our employees on AI”. In August, it announced a plan to replace nearly 8,000 jobs with AI. 

In January of last year, IBM said on its earnings call that it was cutting 3,900 positions. “In 4Q earnings earlier this year, IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge that would represent a very low single-digit percentage of IBM’s global workforce, and we expect to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with,” the company told CNBC in a statement. 

According to Layoffs.fyi, in 2024, nearly 50,000 jobs were cut by 204 tech companies. January saw the highest number of layoffs, with Amazon, Alphabet, and Unity announcing job cuts. 

Although IBM has experienced growth, it remains relatively modest. Fourth-quarter revenue increased by 4% from the previous year, exceeding estimates for earnings. 

During the earnings call, CFO James Kavanaugh mentioned the need for workforce rebalancing. The company has been striving to integrate into the emerging narrative surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

Since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in late 2022, AI has been a major focus across the tech industry.