AI creates new employment opportunities amid job loss fears: Report

Amid fears of AI-driven job losses, CPRG's Ramanand highlights that AI also creates new employment in emerging sectors like data centres and AI governance, stressing the need for India to prepare its workforce to seize these opportunities.

Amid growing concerns over job losses due to Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ramanand, Founder-Director of the Centre of Policy Research and Governance (CPRG), has underlined that while AI is replacing certain roles, it is simultaneously generating new employment opportunities across emerging sectors.

AI's Dual Impact on Employment

Speaking to ANI, on the publication of a joint report by CPRG and AI4India titled "Future of Jobs in the Age of AI: Emerging Roles, New Opportunities," Ramanand said the ongoing global discourse often highlights job losses due to AI-driven automation, including recent large-scale layoffs in global tech companies such as Meta.

He noted that the dominant narrative of AI "replacing humans" is only partially true, stressing that AI is also creating new categories of employment. "The prevailing logic offered for this trend is that people are being replaced by AI. It is indeed replacing human workers and that is a factual reality; however, AI is also simultaneously creating jobs," he said.

Emerging Sectors and New Opportunities

Highlighting emerging areas of employment, Ramanand pointed to sectors such as data centres, AI deployment systems, AI governance frameworks, and training and skilling ecosystems as major future job creators. He further said that technological shifts have historically displaced certain jobs but have always led to the creation of new economic opportunities, describing the current transition as part of a broader "natural evolution of technology."

A Call for Urgent Policy Action in India

Ramanand emphasised the need for urgent and coordinated action by policymakers, industry and bureaucracy to prepare India's workforce for these changes. "India cannot afford delay or lag in policy preparation. This is not a time to lose speed. Bureaucracy, industry and political leadership must work together," he said, warning that delays could result in other countries capturing emerging AI-driven job markets.

He also stressed that the opportunity is global in nature and not limited to India alone, adding that countries which fail to prepare their workforce risk losing out on future employment generation to more agile economies.

According to him, the report identifies several potential high-growth sectors where job creation is expected to accelerate, particularly in AI infrastructure, governance and skill development ecosystems. The report jointly released by CPRG and AI4India highlights both the disruption and opportunity created by AI, urging proactive workforce transformation and policy readiness to ensure inclusive growth in the evolving technological landscape. (ANI)

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