Konica Minolta, a Japanese IT and printing services group, announced that it would cut 2,400 jobs worldwide, or 6% of its workforce. The firm, which has subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and distributes its services in more than 150 countries, is facing a decline in demand for its printing equipment, one of its main areas of activity.
“Move human capital towards high value-added operations”
The restructuring of the company began on 1er April, and will be carried out during the new financial year 2024-2025. A decision justified by its strategy of “sustainable growth”For “increase employee productivity”making greater use of generative artificial intelligence tools. “In order to transform human capital and improve productivity, investments will be strengthened, including the use of generative AI, to move human capital towards high value-added operations”Konica Minolta said in a statement.
The Japanese group also specified that it “continue to put qualified talent in the right jobs, and invest in education for human capital development”. With these job cuts, the firm expects a financial gain of 20 billion yen (121 million euros).
An overall drop in demand
With the Covid-19 pandemic, then the massive use of teleworking, office equipment companies are struggling to meet their objectives. Some then had to diversify, by creating branches dedicated to medical equipment or semiconductors. To stay in the race, two of the world's largest printing equipment manufacturers, Japan's Ricoh and Toshiba Tec, announced in May 2023 a partnership to create a joint venture with their multifunction printer manufacturing activities. This new entity should see the light of day in July.
Konica Minolta is not the only multinational to massively cut its workforce to turn to generative AI. At the end of January, the German software publisher SAP, among others, announced the elimination of 8,000 additional jobs, to take advantage of “productivity gains from artificial intelligence”.
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