Various workers in the marketing and communications departments at IBM were notified on Tuesday that they would be laid off. The company’s chief communications officer held a meeting with the divisions earlier this week and announced the news. IBM had stated earlier this year that thousands of positions would be cut in the near future, and employees would be trained on the use of AI to increase productivity and efficiency. IBM had a successful fourth quarter and increased earnings by four percent compared to the fourth quarter last year. This is partly due to Watson X, a new IBM initiative focused on the development and advancement of machine learning models. However, IBM faces steep competition in the AI product market, as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have released similar AI models.
See "Marketing and communications division at IBM to be hit with layoffs", Hayden Field, CNBC, March 13, 2024