IBM software division employees living within 50 miles of an office globally are now required to be physically present for a minimum of three days a week. Credit: Shutterstock Employees in IBM’s software division have become the latest tech workers to face a return-to-office mandate, in this case requiring them to be in the office for a minimum of three days a week, starting from today. Unlike other return to office mandates that have been put in place by Amazon, Google, Meta, and Zoom in recent months, IBM’s requirement will affect employees across the globe, rather than just workers who are based in the US. “Starting next week, all IBM Software employees will be required to spend at least 3 days in the office each week. The decision on which days will be left to managers and individual project teams,” read an internal blog written by IBM Software’s Kareem Yusuf, senior vice president for product management, and Dinesh Nirmal, senior vice president for products. The blog post was published on September 5, with its content first reported by The Register. According to the blog post, the mandate will initially just apply to employees living within 50 miles of an IBM office, with those that live further out being “exempt at this time.” IBM has yet to respond to questions about when employees living further than 50 miles will be required to be back in the office, if other IBM divisions will be rolling out similar mandates, and whether a failure to meet the new attendance requirements will result in disciplinary action or termination, as other companies have stated office it will. “It is vital to our culture and our shared goals — tripling development output, building winning products, and winning new clients — that we spend more meaningful time together, in-person,” the blog reportedly read, noting that right now, one in four IBM Software employees are working in the office three days a week, a figure the division wants to reach to three in four by October. IBM plans to replace jobs with AI In May, IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna conducted an interview with Bloomberg during which he said the company plans to use AI to replace almost 8,000 jobs, adding that the company was also looking to cut down hiring for roles that could be replaced with AI. It was estimated this would amount to around 26,000 roles, which include non-customer facing jobs and back-office functions such as HR, Krishnasaid, adding that 30% of such roles, or approximately 7,800 jobs, could be replaced with AI or automation over the next five years. Krishna’s comments on AI replacing humans come just months after the company said it would cut 3,900 jobs or 1.5% of its workforce. Related content news AMD and Intel take on Nvidia with new AI chips and pricing strategies Intel's Lunar Lake AI chip and AMD's Instinct MI325X accelerator are set to offer stiff competition to Nvidia's dominance in AI chips market. By Prasanth Aby Thomas Jun 04, 2024 4 mins CPUs and Processors opinion How AI will kill the smartphone Once a phone becomes simply a conduit for accessing AI in the cloud, we won’t need to upgrade — and, in fact, won’t need a smartphone at all. By Mike Elgan Jun 04, 2024 6 mins iPhone Smartphones Apple news Robotics makers embrace Nvidia digital twins to create autonomous AI-run factories Nvidia says more than a dozen companies are working with its digital twin and Omniverse 3D digital technology to recreate factories in a bid to create more efficient physical plants. Once a factory is digitized, engineers can manipulate it to find ef By Lucas Mearian Jun 04, 2024 4 mins 3D Modeling Tools Manufacturing Industry Nvidia news Qualcomm marks its foray into Windows PCs with next-gen AI chips The company gets backing from Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Acer for Copilot+ PCs. By Gyana Swain Jun 04, 2024 3 mins Windows PCs Qualcomm Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe