The chief executive officer of OpenText Corp. sees artificial intelligence having a big impact on the job market in the coming years.

“AI is very real, and where it’s really going to have a big impact in the next one or two years is around talent and people,” Mark Barrenechea told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Friday.

“Systems have gotten pretty good, there’s a lot of data being stored around employees and prospective employees,” he added, noting the influx of generation Zers entering the workforce. “And if you’re hiring someone, do you need to hire them? How do you get the best person? How do they work in that culture?”  

“AI is going to have a dramatic impact on the labour force in the coming years.”

AI has been a big focus for Waterloo-based OpenText and the company looks to grow its cloud services business, which Barrenechea said has recently topped 60,000 customers globally.

On Thursday, the company reported earnings for its fiscal second quarter, with revenue rising 0.1 per cent year-over-year to US$735 million, topping analyst estimates of US$729.7 million. It also reported diluted earnings per share of US$0.39 for the quarter.

The company also saw a 5.3 per cent year-over-year surge in revenue in its cloud services and subscriptions, which brought in US$219 million in the quarter.

As well, OpenText announced Thursday the purchase of U.S. legal tech company Catalyst Repository Systems Inc. . The company said M&A continues to be the its biggest growth driver.