The once‑great tech giant’s place in the new tech cycle is in disarray. The problem for IBM Chief Executive Arvind Krishna is that things are going too fast and too slow—all at the same time—and he’s stuck in the middle. That’s a bad place to be in the AI revolution.

Krishna bet big on a hybrid‑cloud approach in response to the rise of hyperscalers and has long sold investors on IBM’s role in quantum computing—a next‑generation technology he says is three to five years away. It’s hard to imagine IBM in three years, let alone five, if it has too many more days like this past week.

The stock dropped 25% Tuesday after IBM warned second‑quarter results would be far worse than expected. This showed AI isn’t only jeopardizing the software business, it is making it harder to sell legacy offerings in an IT market where the new technology is re‑prioritizing corporate spending away from Big Blue.

While the biggest tech companies’ cloud businesses have helped position them to adapt to AI, many, like Krishna, find themselves trying to manage legacy businesses even as they struggle to keep pace with emerging, pure‑play rivals. It’s a familiar story that has repeatedly played out in other sectors during prior tech waves.