AI poses risk to white-collar jobs, focus must be on upskilling: MeitY secy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is placing professionals who rely on cognitive skills at the highest risk of job replacement, a fundamental change from previous technological shifts, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.

Speaking at FICCI's AI India Conclave, Krishnan explained that because AI is now directly challenging cognitive labour, white-collar workers are the most vulnerable to being automated out of their positions.

"If you looked at previous industrial revolutions the kind of change that they engineered, most of that change was around automating physical, manual work. For the first time, AI is actually replacing cognitive work. So it's people who work with their minds who are at the greatest risk of replacement by AI," the Secretary noted.

Despite the threat of displacement, Krishnan emphasised AI's significant power to boost productivity, particularly across developing economies like India. He argued that the potential for creating new job opportunities through upskilling far outweighs the risks of current job losses.

"Immediate temptation for many companies could be to look for the early wins and forget about the long-term issues that could come up, but as the government, we are concerned on both sides of this. It's not that we are not concerned about job losses, but we believe that the opportunities for creation of newer kinds of jobs in newer areas is far greater, and that happens primarily through reskilling, upskilling, and talent development.

"This is a task which is common to all of us. It's not just the government's job, it's not just an industry's job; it's going to be a range of stakeholders who are going to be involved in this process," he said.