Global technology giant IBM (International Business Machines Corp) expects to replace around 7,800 jobs by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the next five years, CEO Arvind Krishna told Bloomberg News on Monday.

Krishna told Blomberg in an interview that hiring for back-office functions such as human resources will be suspended or slowed and he expects 30% of non-customer-facing roles could be replaced by AI and automations in five years. This works out to around 7,800 jobs in IBM.

His comments come at a time when AI is seen as having the potential of becoming a major disruptor in the days ahead after the launch of Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November.

The role of AI in carrying out tasks such as e customer service, write text and generate code, has raised fears that it could displace jobs on a large scale. The IBM CEO comments have added to these fears as the world braces for a technology jolt in the job market.