Are you planning on resigning from your current job? For anybody that’s reading this at an IBM office, we have some alarming news for you.
According to a report by CNBC, IBM has developed an artificial intelligence which is capable of predicting when an employee is planning on resigning with 95 percent accuracy.
As scary as that sounds, IBM is seemingly using the technology to retain employees.
The AI can be used to identify an employee’s strengths which in turn can be used by managers to guide employees toward future opportunities. While this is usually the domain of managers, chief executive officer at IBM, Ginni Rometty, says that managers aren’t always the best solution for helping employees.
“We found manager surveys were not accurate,” the CEO said. “Managers are subjective in ratings. We can infer and be more accurate from data.”
IBM didn’t disclose how its “predictive attrition program” works but did say it analyses multiple data points. These data points include the tasks an employee has completed, educational courses they have taken among others.
The idea is that this data gives managers better insight into the capabilities of an employee and as such can help to guide them toward greater career prospects.
“I will change all jobs once it is in the workflow, and that is the most meaningful kind of AI. Yes, some jobs will be replaced, but that is a red herring,” Rometty told CNBC.
“This is all a game about skill and having people with the right skills, and everyone’s job is changing.”
IBM doesn’t just have solutions for employers though. The firm’s My Career Advisor is a virtual assistant powered by AI that helps employees identify where they could improve their skill set. Employees can also opt into Blue Match technology which gives employees alerts about job openings within a firm that match their skill set.
IBM’s CEO says that 27 percent of employees promoted or who received new jobs at IBM were assisted by Blue Match.
So while an AI might be able to predict when you are looking to leave a company, that might not be a bad thing. You could, for example, walk away with a promotion based on your skill set.
As Rometty points out, being able to give employees better opportunities based on proper data rather than a person’s opinion of you is a very good thing.
