Here's why the IT industry need not fear automation

 

To all those who are worried that robots will take up their jobs in future, here’s some relief. Automation does not mean robots will be taking over your jobs, it rather means that  increasingly employees, especially those in white-collar jobs may face the threat of being replaced  by a smaller number of people still using machines. After all, you need someone to program these robots.

 

Automation started happening around four years ago and change can be effectively seen in hiring practices world over within this year and the next. By then most companies would be gearing to have made the jump or would have already moved onto measures combating automation in their respective sectors.

 

What working professionals need to be wary of is the danger of being sacrificed in the name of being outdated. The IT industry in India is going through a tumultuous period. The forecast for 2017 is not very bright either. They have Donald Trump’s protectionist policies blocking their sailboat to the American jobosphere, the internal economic conditions which show a bleak revival ahead and automation which is staring them in the face.

 

 

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani has put the facts out there - plain and simple - and he also suggests a way out. "We have to do something and make our education system far more innovative and creativity-based because in future, a lot of jobs that exist today will not exist. A lot of new jobs will get created", the former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said.

 

So, people will have to go in for a life-time continuous learning mode and learn new ideas and skills throughout their working career. So, the education system will have to respond with a whole new model of providing life-long education, just in time, highly personalised... so that big change is required.”

 

 

So now, what the Indian IT industry needs to do is shift its focus from Trump. Something very well explained by Narayana Murthy another stalwart of the Infosys brigade. In a conversation with NDTV, he explained why Indians need not be affected by H-1B visa regulations. His words convey a sort of acceptance of the circumstances that are ahead of us. Indian software companies need to stop sending people on H-1B visas and focus on local hiring in the US, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy said amid rising concerns over Donald Trump administration's proposals to restrict inflow of foreign workers. They (Indian software companies) must recruit American residents in the US, Canadians in Canada, British people in Britain etc. That's the only way, we can become a true multi-national company and in order to do that, we should stop using H-1B visas and sending a large number of Indians to those countries to deliver services," Murthy advocated. His explanation is a like a bitter pill to swallow in times like this, when many professionals are seeing themselves out of a job!

 

Along with this, reports of hiring patterns changing in the IT industry have also gathered speed. Rightfully so, IT majors are already onto Plan B and coupled with automation it might just see many out of a job.  If we go by the various Industrial Revolutions  the world has seen, it is the adaption and absorption of newer technology and accelerating education to meet these challenges  that has seen us through.

 

Also read: Infosys giving into automation, hiring in IT set to change?

 

Companies, in the future, will need to assure clients that they are offering the most innovative solutions in terms of big data technology and for that, their employees will also have to keep pace.  Hiring and firing every time a technology leap occurs will again see them incurring a lot of losses in terms of training, so it is essential that companies ensure their existing employees update their skill sets.

 

Yes, as job applicants we will need to get ready for slow hiring and especially junior level jobs. But the only way forward now is to keep pace with the latest trends in individual sectors like hospitality, retail, and IT. Online courses on data analysis, digital computing, deciphering cloud data etc.. will soon be the need of the hour. The rush of automation will bring on a whole load of data which will need experts to convert into meaningful and useful work, so be prepared for more job openings, however, it will only be good as long as employees themselves are updated with the relevant skills.

 

The attempt will then have to start from the grassroot level which is our education system which needs to bring more problem-solving and data related studies, rather than rote learning.  

 

Also read: New Year alert! IT hiring may witness a spike in 2017