It's become a trend when companies one after another start laying off employees under the pretext of increasing productivity after AI takes over human tasks, but the question is what will happen to the employees?
Singapore's largest bank, Development Bank of Singapore Ltd (DBS), has just confirmed the 'silent layoffs' with 4,000 contract and temporary employees to be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) within three years.
According to the bank, AI is now becoming more efficient at taking over human tasks and is able to generate more than SGD1 billion a year, a figure that makes human resources look less productive.
However, DBS insists that permanent employees will not be affected and will even open 1,000 new AI-related positions.
This announcement was made just a few weeks before DBS CEO Piyush Gupta retires at the end of March.
A coincidence... or is there a strategy behind it?
