CEA Anantha Nageswaran feels AI not replacing jobs but enhancing human roles, ‘should be treated as tool’

Data centres and artificial intelligence (AI) “raise the value of each person who works there” rather than replacing jobs, believes V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Indian government, ANI reported on Thursday. The view comes amid concerns over the growth of AI global capability centres (GCC) in India.

Speaking at the GCC Business Summit hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 9 July, he said that AI requires human oversight and should thus be treated as a tool, not “fate”.

‘AI requires human oversight to design, train, test, govern systems’

Nageswaran further noted that while cheap automation could take over routine, repetitive, and rule-bound tasks, well-run centres will use the tech to enhance human roles. “Artificial intelligence requires human oversight to design, train, test, and govern the systems. AI does not, therefore, empty these centres. In the centres that are run well, the AI raises the value of each person who works there. So the risk is there, but that is not destiny. The centres that stand still will suffer. The centres that move up will thrive,” he stated.

Further, Nageswaran feels that how countries adopt and apply AI will have a significant impact on the future. “A country that treats a powerful technology as fate will end up being shaped by it. A country that treats AI as a tool will shape it instead. India must be in the second group,” he added.

India is second largest enterprise AI talent base globally

The economist reportedly noted that India hosts around 50% of the world's GCCs — more than 2,000 centres employing 20 lakh employees, and sector revenue above $60 billion, which contributes close to 2% to the GDP.

Nageswaran further said that more than 1,200 of these centres perform advanced AI work and machine learning (ML), which establishes the country as the second largest enterprise AI talent base globally.

“Global firms first came to India for cost. They stayed for capability. That's an important difference. A cost advantage can be copied by the next low-cost country. A capability advantage is harder to build and harder to lose as well,” he stated.

Nageswaran further added that global banks run trading platforms in Mumbai and Bengaluru, car makers design embedded systems in Chennai and Pune, and semiconductor firms conduct chip design locally. He also pointed to German firm Merck's new campus in Bengaluru, which holds the company's largest concentration of digital capability worldwide, making India its fourth largest workforce hub.

“Success can breed complacency. The advantage we hold today was built over time, but it can also erode. Other countries are watching us and copying us. Our costs are rising. In some skills, our talent is already scarce,” he warned.

‘Benefit has flowed both ways’

The CEA noted that "what began as support became engineering and what began as engineering became product and what began as a back office became in many firms the place where global decisions are now made."

“The benefit has flowed both ways. Global firms got world-class work done at a fair price and Indian professionals got careers they could not have imagined one generation earlier. GCC roles today often pay much more than traditional service jobs. Our goal should never be to make our people work like machines. Our goal should be to use machines so that our people are freed to do more of what only people can do, to reason, to decide, to take responsibility, and to exercise wisdom,” Nageswaran concluded.

(With inputs from ANI)