JD.com founder vows to protect Chinese jobs from AI and robots
JD.com founder Liu Qiangdong said the company would protect jobs across its 900,000-strong workforce as it adopts automation. Liu said JD.com would not fire front-line workers replaced by machines and pointed to more than 80 training bases for new technical skills. His comments come after Chinese legal moves requiring retraining or reassignment before workers can be terminated.
JD.com Inc. founder Liu Qiangdong has vowed to prevent the e-commerce company’s 900,000-strong workforce from losing their jobs to automation, as Chinese companies speed up adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics.
Pledge to protect workers
JD.com, one of China’s largest employers by headcount, will “do everything possible to safeguard employment for hundreds of thousands of staff, including blue-collar workers,” Liu said in an internal speech on Wednesday, according to a video circulating on social media.
“JD.com will not fire a single front-line worker replaced by machines,” he said.
JD.com did not respond to an emailed request for comment, according to the report.
The remarks address growing concerns that AI systems and robots could replace workers.
Chinese companies are racing to implement AI systems as part of a state-directed push to dominate the technology, while Chinese Communist Party planners are trying to maintain stability in the labor market as the country faces a slowing economy and elevated youth unemployment.
Automation, retraining and legal guardrails
JD.com employs staff in roles ranging from couriers and store clerks to AI trainers and robot maintenance engineers.
The online retailer is also experimenting with unmanned technologies.
A recent filing said those include “unmanned warehouses, drone delivery, self-driving vehicles, unmanned delivery stations and convenience stores, among others.”
Liu said JD.com has set up more than 80 training bases around China.
The company says the bases will retrain workers in skills such as maintenance and servicing of automated systems.
His comments follow a Chinese court ruling in late April that companies cannot terminate employees or cut their salaries simply to replace them with artificial intelligence systems.
Chinese authorities also ruled last year that companies are legally required to retrain or reassign workers before they can be terminated.
The report described that requirement as an early guardrail against AI job replacement that few other countries have established.
