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Last Updated:March 15, 2025, 12:27 IST
Although he expressed optimism for sustained GDP growth, Arindam Paul cautioned that an AI-driven employment crisis is the most likely scenario unless India dramatically grows its manufacturing sector.
Shared on March 12, the post has racked up over 700 likes and several comments. (Photo credits: Linkedin)
Mumbai-based entrepreneur and the founder of Atomberg, Arindam Paul, recently generated a contentious debate on LinkedIn about his opinions on how artificial intelligence (AI) could affect India’s white-collar job sector. He cautioned that the country’s economy would face serious challenges if AI was to significantly weaken employment in the BPO and IT services industries.
In his LinkedIn post, Arindam Paul voiced his worry that the lack of well-paying jobs being created by India’s manufacturing sector could make the issue worse. “I don’t think most people, including our leaders, still understand how big a threat AI could be to our economy. Our manufacturing is nowhere close to where it should be when it comes to generating jobs that pay 3-6 lakhs per year. Our IT services and BPOs will see a significant reduction in manpower, and in many cases, in their business,” Arindam Paul wrote in his long post.
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The Mumbai-based entrepreneur conceded that big IT companies like Infosys would change and even prosper, but he maintained that their workforce would shrink. “While I think companies like Infosys etc will survive and some might even thrive, but, even in that case, they won’t be employing nearly as many people as they do. Almost 40-50 percent white collar jobs that exist today might cease to exist. And that would mean the end of the middle class and the consumption story,” Arindam Paul further added.
The Mumbai-based entrepreneur chastised companies who are excited about AI-driven cost-cutting but ignore its wider economic implications. “While all corporates are today happy that AI will reduce manpower and increase efficiency and improve bottomline, they forget that without jobs and money in consumer hands, there will be no topline,” he went on to warn in his post.
Although he expressed optimism for sustained GDP growth, Arindam Paul cautioned that an AI-driven employment crisis is the most likely scenario unless India dramatically grows its manufacturing sector.
Shared on March 12, the post has racked up over 700 likes and several comments.
A user said, “You’ve stated the inevitable. Unless today’s white-collar jobs are replaced with an AI-driven profile, we are heading towards a crisis.”
Another commented, “I feel this mostly applies to digital or IT-related jobs. But non-digital and manufacturing roles won’t be impacted as much. In fact, AI might even create new jobs in research-driven sectors.”
“We have a low-skilled, low-productivity workforce that doesn’t understand global competition. Automation will eliminate repetitive, low-skill jobs first and replace them with scalable, high-quality outputs,” an individual wrote.
“AI will disrupt jobs, but history shows that every major shift—whether the Industrial Revolution or the rise of IT—has both displaced and created jobs. The challenge is whether we’re creating new opportunities fast enough,” a user put out a more optimistic view and said.
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Delhi, India, India