IBM Triples Entry-Level Hiring Despite AI Layoff Trends

What does the top HR executive at IBM do while the rest of big tech blames AI for workforce reductions? The company chooses the exact opposite strategy.

Nickle LaMoreaux, Chief Human Resources Officer at IBM and one of 2026’s Top 100 HR Tech Influencers, has ordered the business to triple its US entry-level hiring this year. 

This policy applies across every business unit, targeting the very roles that recent layoff headlines declare obsolete.

Layoff trends versus IBM strategy

Industry leaders such as Microsoft, Meta and Salesforce have all leaned on AI to explain thinner ranks in 2026. Nickle is doing the reverse and she is unsentimental about her reasoning.

“If we don’t continue to invest in entry-level hires, what happens in three to five years?. There’s no pipeline; the well simply dries up,” Nickle asked at February’s Charter AI Summit in New York, US. 

Her broader argument is that the industry panic is overbaked: “AI will take a portion” of jobs, Nickle told The Deep View at New York Tech Week, “but because we’re growing, we still need human jobs to fill that other space.”

IBM has spent two years automating its internal back office. Its AskHR agent currently settles about 94% of routine staff requests.

The remaining 6%, involving complex ethical calls and human judgment, still lands with staff.

“Our total employment has actually gone up, because what it does is it gives you more investment to put into other areas,” Arvind Krishna, CEO at IBM, told The Wall Street Journal. He described how capital saved on administrative functions was redirected into hiring programmers, sales teams and software developers.

IBM currently employs more than 275,000 people across 170 countries. The point from Arvind, mirroring Nickle’s view, is that AI frees up operational capacity rather than removing the necessity for human staff.

Market research highlights AI job cut reversals

A run of 2026 research indicates that many organisations that made early cuts are now quietly rehiring. Recent data reveals a distinct shift across several major global employers:

• Orgvue found 39% of business leaders made staff redundant because of AI, yet 55% of those leaders now admit they made the wrong decision
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia reversed recent job cuts after an AI voice bot buckled under the high volume of customer calls it was built to manage
• Ford brought back hundreds of engineers to resolve complex quality problems that automation could not fix. “AI is a fantastic tool, but it’s only as good as the information you use to train it,” Charles Poon, VP at Ford, says
• Robert Half told CNBC that 32% of US hiring managers cut a role due to AI, only to rehire for the exact same or a similar position later

Even software tooling firms concede this pattern. “Where AI outputs are inconsistent, inaccurate or difficult to apply, companies often need to reintroduce human oversight,” Jessica Zhang, Senior Vice President for APAC at ADP, says.

Jessica warns of the risks of “duplicated effort, slower decision-making and diminished productivity gains”.

Protecting early career talent pipelines

Nickle argues that reduced entry-level hiring is a long-term talent pipeline crisis disguised as a short-term cost control measure. 

Organisations that hollow out their junior roles today will have no senior leaders to promote in the future.

A 2026 study by the IBM Institute for Business Value found that nearly two-thirds of executives report AI is actively reshaping roles and workflows. However, most organisations have not updated their workforce development systems to match this reality.

Her advice to early-career professionals is to focus on delivering clear business outcomes rather than listing static job responsibilities. Nickle says workers must treat AI literacy as a practical skill to apply rather than an item on a resume.

Essential skills such as communication, judgment and leadership, Nickle adds: “will not be taken over” by AI technology.

With IBM set to report its second-quarter financial results on 23 July 2026, the market will soon judge whether expanding recruitment against prevailing industry trends represents calculated risk or strategic foresight. Nickle has already taken her stance.

“The companies that will be most competitive in three to five years are the ones that are doubling entry-level hiring right now,” Nickle says.