International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) expects to cut 7,800 jobs in the coming years and replace them with AI, the CEO of the US tech giant, Arvind Krishna, has said. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Krishna said the company plans to slow or entirely suspend hiring for back-office functions such as human resources, noting that these non-customer-facing roles currently amount to nearly 26,000 workers.

“There is no blanket hiring ‘pause’ in place,” Adam R. Pratt, an IBM spokesman, said in a statement. “We’re being very selective when filling jobs that don’t directly touch our clients or technology.”