India’s workforce faces the AI test

If you’re a keen follower of AI trends and feel like a wildly swinging pendulum, we sympathise with you. One day, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns of a job apocalypse that could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar roles. The next day, you read that Builder.ai – a company once valued at 1.3 billion US dollars – has gone phut because all the AI magic they promised turned out to be hype.

While AI evangelists paint pictures of algorithms ruling the workspace and one-person billion-dollar companies, the ground truth is more complicated. Some Western companies that rushed to replace human workers with AI are now quietly reversing course. Swedish fintech firm Klarna, after initially replacing customer service staff with AI chatbots, has begun rehiring human agents. IBM, which replaced most of its HR division with AI, is also bringing staff back.

What’s happening in the developed world could be a precursor to changes heading our way. Sources in Kerala’s tech sector say the impact of AI is being felt in India too, but they don’t foresee mass layoffs anytime soon. Still, there are some worrying signs on the horizon – whether you’re a job hunter or a well-settled employee.

Sreekumar V, Secretary of the Group of Technology Companies (GTech), says the effects of automation and AI will be felt by Indian firms sooner or later. “Right now, there is a drop in intake of new employees, but that’s largely due to fat trimming and not an impact of AI. Many companies had overhired during the Covid period. Even those who were recruited last year are being absorbed into the workforce now, which has led to fewer new entrants this year.”

“But the work structure is changing, and as AI gets adopted more widely, there will be some pain,” says Sreekumar, who heads the Tata Elxsi unit in Trivandrum.

Disruption Ahead

The rapid advancement of AI is making automation more efficient, and that will change how work is done. This could mean less demand for fresh hands deployed for basic tasks. Even middle-level employees will need to adapt, unlearn, and relearn to remain relevant. Some may even have to shift to different domains as disruption spreads.

Code writing is one area that could change dramatically. New employees starting out are already using AI tools to generate code. But the reliability of these code-writing algorithms remains a concern, and companies still need human oversight to check and refine the AI-generated output.

Sreekumar says AI tools will eventually become more efficient, potentially reaching a level in two to five years where basic code structures are generated entirely by machines.

Hype Critics

Critics like Mark Cuban argue that this “white-collar bloodbath” narrative is simply part of the AI hype machine. Historical precedent supports this scepticism. Previous waves of automation – think of typists when computers arrived – displaced workers temporarily, but ultimately led to new industries and job categories.

The current AI panic may be following a familiar pattern: overestimating short-term disruption while underestimating long-term adaptation. The fact that companies are already pulling back from AI-only strategies suggests the technology isn’t yet ready to replace the workforce entirely.

Deepa Nair, who coordinates HR Evolve, a group of HR professionals in Trivandrum Technopark, says that even though there haven’t been mass layoffs, automation has already started changing the tech landscape. She notes that older business models like call centres and medical transcription have felt the pinch, with some shutting down as AI tools made such repetitive work redundant over the last few years.

“There’s been no change in the headcount of major firms, but automation and AI adoption are clearly impacting the nature of jobs. As tools become more efficient, job losses could happen in the near future,” says Deepa, who is Senior Manager, Human Resources at 6D Technologies.

Human Touch

While AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude have shown remarkable capability in generating text, images, and code, they still haven’t reached a stage where they can deliver complete outputs that make human workers unnecessary. Hallucinations by large language models remain an issue, and trusting AI-generated content blindly is still risky — meaning human oversight continues to be essential.

One thing is certain: AI is spreading through the workplace rapidly. It’s saving time for many, but not necessarily eliminating human roles altogether.

“Earlier, we’d get our graphic department to create a poster for a colleague’s birthday ahead of office celebrations,” says Deepu Xavier, co-founder of Cochin-based Zappyhire. “Now we just upload a picture, type a few lines about the person, and ask a platform like ChatGPT to generate one. It gives four or five options, and we pick one — all in a matter of a few minutes.”

This, he says, frees up content creators to focus on more important tasks and spend their time more productively. As the CEO of an AI-assisted recruitment firm with fewer than 50 employees, Deepu says this isn’t a paradigm shift for them – yet.

“But for a company with thousands of employees, such changes could have a far bigger impact. As efficiency increases, larger companies may look to cut the unwanted fat,” he adds.

Balanced Approach

The AI agent revolution is real, but it’s not the binary transformation that headlines suggest. Like previous technological shifts, it will create winners and losers, reshape industries, and require workers to adapt. However, the timeline for massive displacement may be longer than some predict, and the ultimate impact more complex than simple job elimination.

The key insight from current market behaviour is that successful AI implementation requires thoughtful integration with human capabilities, not wholesale replacement. Companies that recognise this nuance – using AI to augment, not replace, human workers – are likely to find more sustainable competitive advantages.

For workers, the message is neither panic nor complacency, but preparation. The jobs of the future will likely require comfort with AI tools, but they’ll still rely on uniquely human skills: creativity, emotional intelligence, complex reasoning, and adaptability.

Teaching the Teachers

Ripples of these changes are already reaching educational institutions, especially engineering colleges. Students have begun acquiring skills beyond what’s taught in the current curriculum, and soon colleges will have to provide such opportunities formally. A major challenge in initiating this change is the upskilling of faculty, many of whom have been accustomed to set ways of teaching for decades.

“It’s going to be a difficult phase for them,” says Sreekumar. “But it’s heartening to know that faculty in many colleges have recognised the impending changes and are starting to reach out to industry for support.”

He points out, however, that the capacity of local industry to meet such training demands is limited, as most companies don’t have the bandwidth to accommodate large numbers. A more concerted effort by education authorities and the government is needed – and groups like GTech, he says, would be happy to help.

The AI agent world is indeed coming, but it may be more evolutionary than revolutionary – at least in the near term. The real question isn't whether AI will change work, but how quickly we can adapt to work effectively alongside it.

Boost for Indian medical device sector

Robots that can perform surgery are complex pieces of hardware, and the space is largely dominated by Western and Chinese firms. So, it is heartening to see an Indian company making a foray into this area. SS Innovations International, creators of the SSI Mantra surgical robotic system, was recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange, opening a new frontier for its products. The company is headquartered in Gurugram and Florida, and its robotic surgery system has been installed in 80 hospitals across 75 locations in India and several other Asian countries. While the da Vinci system, made by American company Intuitive Surgical, still dominates the global market, SSI Innovations enjoys a price advantage and, so far, its performance has been second to none.

More evidence of the robustness of the Indian biopharma sector came last week when Trivandrum-based Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) announced it had signed six technology transfer agreements last year. These span a variety of innovations, from a deep brain stimulator to apparatus designed to reduce trauma in lab rats. While the injection of dynamism into medical manufacturing is welcome, it would be even better if research organisations and pharma companies were given a crash course in public relations. Visibility is a key component if Indian companies want to become global players, but unfortunately Indian pharma companies and research organisations still shy away from giving out information about their work.

Step out in AI style

Finding a cool dress online and using an app to see how it looks on you is a technology that’s been around for a while. But lock screen platform Glance, based in Bangalore, has taken it a step further, reports the New Indian Express. Its new app saves you the hassle of browsing for clothes – all you have to do is upload a picture and fill out a few basic details. The AI algorithm then analyses the input and shows you a few cool looks featuring you clad in a range of outfits it found online. It also provides prices, similar styles, and links to the relevant shops. We tried the app– and had fun seeing ourselves in styles we wouldn’t normally pick. Whether it’ll convert play into purchase is uncertain, but it’s definitely worth a spin.

On the road again

Robotaxis are shaping up to be the next battleground between companies in the US and China. Both countries have begun operating driverless taxis in their domestic markets, and the race is now on to capture international territory. Geopolitical hurdles are keeping Chinese firms out of Western markets, but they’re making inroads into the Gulf. The latest is Pony.ai, which has signed an agreement to launch robotaxis in Dubai by 2026. Pony.ai, along with Baidu’s Apollo Go and WeRide, make up the “Big Three” of China’s autonomous driving scene – and all of them are eyeing the Gulf, reports The Wall Street Journal. Saudi Arabia aims for autonomous vehicles to account for 15 percent of public transport by 2030, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi setting similar targets.

Dishing out more AI

A Chicago restaurant called Next is offering a nine-course dinner, with each course attributed to a different chef. The lineup is impressive, featuring names like Jill from Wisconsin, who trained under the modernist pioneer Ferran Adrià, the purist sushi master Jiro Ono, and the legendary codifier of French haute cuisine, Auguste Escoffier. There’s just one twist: all the chef – and their recipes – were generated by Grant Achatz, the chef and co-owner of Next, using ChatGPT. According to a New York Times report, AI has made its way into restaurant kitchens, where chefs are now using it to suggest flavour combinations, generate visual mock-ups of redesigned spaces, and even imagine entirely new dishes. A taste of things to come, we say.