AI will lead to IT companies needing 70 per cent fewer people: Vineet Nayar
Industry veteran and former HCL CEO Vineet Nayar tells India Today Tech that Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly going to impact people working in the Indian IT industry in a big way.
Many industries are currently in the middle of a makeover, partly forced by the arrival of generative Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot. And one of the industries where Artificial Intelligence tools are making headway is the IT industry, so much so that alarm bells are ringing over their impact on jobs and workforce requirements.
Industry veteran and former HCL CEO Vineet Nayar tells India Today Tech that Artificial Intelligence is undoubtedly going to impact people working in the Indian IT industry in a big way.
Nayar sounds alarming, but also prescient. According to him, the number is 70 per cent fewer people. In an exclusive conversation with India Today Tech about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on tech companies in India, Nayar says: "Because of automation, IT companies will need 70 per cent less people than they used to for the same task.”
Such predictions have been made by other industry veterans as well. Recently, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that Artificial Intelligence would replace coders in the future. Nayar agrees with the sentiment. "The skills of employees for coding, testing, maintenance, responding to trouble tickets, all that will be taken over by AIâ€æthese skills will become obsolete," Nayar predicts.
As Artificial Intelligence tools increasingly function with almost human-level efficiency, it will create pressure and challenges for Indian IT companies. They will also be tempted to reduce their workforce and fire people. Nayar, however, believes that they should not give in to the temptation. He says that it will not be "ethical" for Indian IT companies to go on a firing spree. It may also be dangerous for the future of the Indian IT industry, he suggests.
As Artificial Intelligence tools increasingly function with almost human-level efficiency, it will create pressure and challenges for Indian IT companies. They will also be tempted to reduce their workforce and fire people. Nayar, however, believes that they should not give in to the temptation. He says that it will not be "ethical" for Indian IT companies to go on a firing spree. It may also be dangerous for the future of the Indian IT industry, he suggests.
Leaving behind existing employees with five, ten or 15 years of experience, who may come at a higher cost, and opting for fresh graduates to train them on Artificial Intelligence skills –– which may seem like an easy, low-cost way out –– Nayar says would be unethical, and may have a negative impact on India’s IT sector few years down the line. “Letting go of existing staff and hiring fresh graduates at low cost, would be unethical and disastrous for India,” he says.
Nayar suggests that IT companies in India should focus on up-skilling and carrying their existing employees with them. “If companies re-engineer and re-calibrate employees to higher order skills, then I believe IT companies will have the resources to re-skill existing people,” he says.
Nayar adds: “The ethical thing for companies to do is carry their employees along with them, predominantly because if they were not making profits, it was understandable. But for companies, Artificial Intelligence will only lead to an increase in market pool, revenues, and profits, so there isn’t a reason why these companies shouldn’t carry their employees with them. That is the ethical step forward.”
However, the impact of Artificial Intelligence on It industry may not be all negative. In fact, Nayar is bullish about the benefits of Artificial Intelligence. He believes Artificial Intelligence will bring “fantastic opportunities for Indian ITs” to become more relevant to its customers.
