Nearly 40-50% of white-collar jobs may cease to exist over ‘AI threat’, says Atomberg Founder Arindam Paul

Mumbai-based household appliances manufacturer Atomberg's Founder and Chief Business Officier, Arindam Paul, in a social media post on LinkedIn, highlighted that nearly 40 to 50 per cent of white collar jobs will cease to exist due to AI threat. 

In the social media post on LinkedIn, the founder highlighted that our nation's people and leaders do not understand the scale of the AI threat to the Indian economy, which is likely to affect India's middle class and consumption pattern.

“I don’t think most people including our leaders still understand how big a threat AI could be to our economy,” said Paul, starting his post on LinkedIn.

The AI threat looms over the people who have white-collar jobs in India.

“Almost 40-50 per cent white collar jobs that exist today might cease to exist. And that would mean the end of the middle class and the consumption story,” said Paul. 

Concerns looming over Indian economy

According to the executive's post, India's manufacturing is not close to an extent which can generate jobs paying ₹3 to 6 lakh annually.

“Our manufacturing is no where close to where it should be when it comes to generating jobs that pay 3-6 lakhs per year,” said Paul in his post.

India's IT services and BPO jobs are expected to witness big layoffs and reduced business operations.

“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,” he said. 

Arindam Paul also highlighted that companies in India are now happy that artificial intelligence (AI) will reduce manpower and increase efficiency on the job. But in that context they are missing out that if more jobs are lost then that's lesser people with money in hand to spend.

“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,” said the CIO.

At the end of his post, Paul also highlighted that he hopes that this does not happen in India but also said that it is possible if the nation does not double its manufacturing than current levels.

“I hope none of this happen and we continue to grow our GDP both at an absolute level as well as at a per capita level, but i also think this is the most probable scenario for India unless we really double down on manufacturing,” according to Paul's post on LinkedIn.