Companies are rehiring employees laid off due to AI
Technologies are not yielding the expected results, and companies believe that their operations should be overseen by humans.
Companies are rehiring employees laid off due to AI
Some companies are bringing back employees who were laid off after the implementation of artificial intelligence. This is due to technologies not yielding the expected efficiency and their operation requiring human supervision.
Among the companies re-engaging staff is the Swedish payment service Klarna. The company's head, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, admitted to over-relying on a chatbot to reduce costs. According to him, the service has begun rehiring staff for its customer support department.
In June, the automaker Ford also announced that it had hired or promoted 350 experienced engineers after artificial intelligence tools used in quality control failed to deliver the expected results. However, the Associated Press does not yet have complete statistics.
Rehired employees are demanding higher salaries and better working conditions. They are also interested in how artificial intelligence will affect the headcount at companies in the future.
According to data from the HR company Robert Half, some employers have reinstated previously eliminated positions due to the need to oversee AI performance. Another reason is that artificial intelligence cannot absorb the knowledge about an organization that employees have accumulated over the years.
Critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to collaborate are also important advantages of human employees, says company representative Bill Driscoll.
A Forrester analyst stated that employers are overlooking qualities of employees that go beyond their job descriptions. This is because people can understand the mood of their colleagues and maintain trust and cohesion within the team:
“When you lay off employees and expect artificial intelligence to be able to replicate what people did, you are often mistaken,” he said.