Tech Explained: AI won’t take India’s tech jobs away in Simple Terms

With its talent, scale and adaptability, India is well-positioned not merely to survive the AI revolution, but to lead it
| Photo Credit:
xavierarnau

The recent AI Impact summit had some takeaways: The world’s fourth-largest economy — a rising power powered by talent, entrepreneurship and demographic strength, is not going to be an AI spectator. There is a decisive shift to building AI-embraced infrastructure for highways, energy, telecom, and so on. Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav says India expects to attract $200 billion of AI investments over the next two years.

Why are global AI/tech companies pouring in investments into India? It’s India’s consumer market they are after. Already 100 million ChatGPT users are there, mostly consumers.

For decades, India’s $300 billion tech services sector, employing nearly six million people, was known primarily for cost arbitrage. The anxiety around AI shrinking tech jobs is overblown. Yann LeCun, godfather of AI and Meta’s former chief AI scientist, has consistently argued that fears of AI causing mass permanent job losses are misplaced and absurd. LeCun views AI as an amplifier of human intelligence rather than a replacement.

The Indian IT industry has endured many disruptions: the dotcom crash of 2000-02 that saw massive project cancellations, pricing pressure and delayed payments; the Global Financial Crisis (2008-09), a recession where clients froze IT spending, renegotiated contracts and currency volatility was the norm; visa and immigration restrictions; and the Covid pandemic — leading to project delays and client uncertainty.

So, historically IT services have faced economic downturns, tech disruptions, political and regulatory pressures, talent and margin pressures. Yet the industry has shown strong resilience by shifting from cost arbitrage to value creation, manpower-based model to now digital and AI led services and IP + AI based revenue.

History suggests technology has enabled new kinds of jobs. The last few decades’ rise of Indian IT services companies was because of multiple new technologies, including the internet, cloud, and mobile. These actually created more jobs even as they led to productivity improvements across industries. When outsourcing reduced enterprise software costs, IT budgets did not contract — they expanded. As prices fell, volumes surged. Why should this time be different?

ChatGPT’s high-voltage debut in 2023 intensified the debate around AI and job loss. Automation has compressed low-value work — repetitive coding, application maintenance, documentation and some BPO tasks that once required large teams.

AI can generate code in seconds, create testing scripts and draft documentation automatically. Boards are asking whether companies can run leaner. Yet, for enterprise-level adoption, and to ensure stable, secure operations, human insight is vital in software testing, coding, and this will ensure that jobs remain intact or even grow, even as there is some displacement in low-end roles.

Next level of productivity

We are entering a different orbit of productivity. AI writes the first draft of code; engineers focus on refining, contextualising and solving complex domain problems. Value shifts from billable hours to faster, higher-quality outcomes. India’s IT services firms operate across four major business areas: implementation of large enterprise packages, customised software development, R&D exports, and infrastructure management. R&D services, advanced engineering and complex transformation projects are hard to replace; they may expand. Code generation is only one slice of the enterprise technology lifecycle.

The real complexity lies in integrating new systems into legacy environments, securing them, deploying them at scale and maintaining them over time. Also, the AI tools too for enterprise are different. IT services companies focus on solutions for enterprises and not consumer.

Estimates suggest AI could represent a $300-400 billion opportunity for IT services companies by 2030 — spanning AI strategy consulting, data preparation, process redesign, legacy modernisation and governance frameworks to ensure AI systems are secure and trustworthy.

If AI were truly hollowing out India’s tech industry, we would see a slowdown in Global Capability Centres (GCCs) setting up here. The opposite is happening. According to IT industry body Nasscom, by the end of 2025, there were more than 1,750 GCCs in India employing around two million, and their numbers are growing.

Over the past few years, multinational corporations have set up their own GCCs in India — in-sourcing work rather than outsourcing it. Instead of handing projects entirely to service providers, they are building captive technology and R&D centres. IT services firms have adapted by creating GCC partnership models, supporting these centres with specialised expertise, overflow capacity and advanced engineering skills.

Companies such as TCS, Infosys, and Wipro plan to hire 10,000-40,000 graduates this year. Demand is shifting, not vanishing. The real change is in skills. There is no substitute for strong computing fundamentals. Engineers must understand core programming before relying on AI tools.

The real question is not whether AI will take away jobs. It is whether India will move up the value chain fast enough. With its talent, scale and adaptability, India is well-positioned not merely to survive the AI revolution, but to lead it.

The writer is Chairman, EPIC Foundation and MGB (Mission Governing Board), National Quantum Mission. Views are personal

Published on March 4, 2026