BT has announced that it will cut up to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade. The company currently employs 130,000 staff, and it could cut up to 42 per cent of its workforce. BT has struggled in recent years as the one-time nationalised giant has had to keep up with a rapidly-evolving communications business.
The fact remains that no technology yet invented has prevented employment reaching new highs
But the greatest comment will be caused by the 10,000 jobs that BT says it will replace with artificial intelligence. AI can indeed help perform some functions that were previously performed by humans, making staff redundant. In BT’s case, the company says it will employ AI to detect and fix software problems in the network. It is easy to see how many other jobs, too, could in theory be wiped out, including mine – although having read ChatGPT’s attempts at journalism I can’t say I am quaking in my boots just yet.
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