India faces lower job risks from AI than West: IT secretary

NEW DELHI: India faces a lower risk of AI-driven disruption to cognitive jobs compared to Western economies, IT secretary S Krishnan has said, citing the country’s relatively lower proportion of white-collar roles in the overall workforce, and highlighted that the dominance of Stem-based employment can yield newer opportunities.Krishnan said AI’s real impact will come from building and deploying sector and use-specific applications, a process that will require large numbers of trained professionals. He added that this is where India’s strength lies and where new AI-driven job opportunities will emerge.“For India, where the number of white-collar jobs relative to other jobs is much lower than in the West, this risk to cognitive jobs, I don’t think, is as serious as it is in other places. Also, the fact that most of our white-collar jobs are in the Stem space means we have an opportunity,” Krishnan said.Krishnan pointed out that AI is the first technology to pose a risk for knowledge workers and cognitive labour, as opposed to industrial and other revolutions in the past that replaced manual labour with machines. Krishnan said while some may believe AI will eliminate the need for workers entirely, he disagrees.“I personally don’t think we’ll reach that stage in such a hurry. What it (AI) would do is enhance human capability (such) that you can be much more productive in your cognitive tasks and have access to the resources,” he said.