IBM has announced that it will layoff a ‘small percentage’ of its global workforce in the fourth quarter in 2025. As reported by CNBC, this latest round of job cuts of the company will impact thousands of employees as the company continues to move towards high-margin software and artificial intelligence services. “In the fourth quarter we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce,” an IBM spokesperson told CNBC. “While this may impact some U.S.-based roles, we anticipate that our U.S. employment will remain flat year over year.”IBM has the global headcount of approximately 2,70,000 employees at the end of 2024, so if the company plans even to layoff 1% of its employees then it will impact around 2,700 employees.

IBM’s strategic shift towards AI and software

The upcoming round of layoffs comes as part of IBM’s broader organisational realignment under CEO Arvind Krishna. The software giant is now sharpening its focus on AI-driven cloud services and software as both the areas have shown strong growth. In its recent earnings report, IBM posted better-than-expected results, driven by a 10% increase in software revenue.A report by The Wall Street Journal revealed that earlier this year, IBM eliminated job roles in marketing and communications and also replaced around 200 human resources positions with AI agents. The company has since redirected hiring efforts toward sales and software development roles.This latest move by IBM mirrors the current trend in the tech industry, where companies are laying off staff in order to streamline operations and also boost productivity. Last month, e-commerce major Amazon announced its plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs, whereas Facebook-parent Meta said that it would eliminated 600 roles in its AI division.Despite the layoffs, IBM still maintains its workforce in the US will remain stable year-over-year, suggesting that the job cuts may be more concentrated in international markets or non-core business units.While IBM has not yet disclosed the departments and regions affected by the upcoming job cuts, but emphasised that the restructuring is part of a long-term strategy to align its workforce with emerging growth areas. “We routinely review our workforce and at times rebalance accordingly,” the company said in a statement.