BENGALURU: The decrease in demand for manpower owing to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and allied technology resulting in job cuts, has been an area of concern. In India alone, jobs loss in the IT sector is reported to have touched 1,000 over the past year, particularly due to incorporating of advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning.
According to sources, various global firms who have their major centres in Bengaluru (such as Cognizant, Accenture and IBM) have either cut or redeployed their employees. As per a survey by the All India Management Association and consulting firm, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PWC), 36% of decision-makers said that overall advancements in automation and technology had not displaced jobs. However, 46% of them indicated that they would have a severe impact on employment in India. Further, nearly half of the participants surveyed felt that job automation was reasonably probable; however, it was likely to be partial, with humans retained for specific expertise.
“The fact remains that with the introduction or adoption of any technology form, there will be some impact on jobs, especially those which are perceived to be updated. But the number of new jobs created as a result of the advent of such technology is almost double. The same happened when the Internet boom came into India. Re-skilling and redeployment of employees within enterprises internally, is the need of the hour,” Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti, faculty, International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, said.