Survey snubs AI impact on workforce, says skilling could put Indians ahead

The Economic Survey 2024–25 struck an upbeat tone on the implications that Artificial Intelligence could have on the workforce. In defiance of the concern that AI could replace some jobs, particularly in the Information Technology sector, the Survey says that appropriate skilling would allow Indians “to stay one step ahead of technological developments,” and that harnessing AI “would minimise or even eliminate the potential adverse impact on employment and, if possible, turn it into a force for augmenting employment.” In an entire chapter dedicated to AI and labour, the Survey acknowledges, “With AI research and development currently concentrated in the hands of a few, very large companies that control the resources to erect high entry barriers, AI adoption in place of humans presents the risk of concentrating the benefits of automation.” In India, “employment numbers make the magnitude of impact something worth paying attention to,” the report says. “India would have to create an average of 78.5 lakh jobs annually in the non-farm sector by 2030 to cater to the rising workforce,” the report says, citing the Survey’s findings in other chapters. But the report also casts technological advancements as a net benefit for employment, citing low job losses in India from factory automation, and the potential for “Human-AI teams” in scientific research “he future of work is ‘Augmented Intelligence’, one that expands the workforce to accommodate both humans and machines,” the report says. In addition to the public sector taking steps like adapting education and regulating the AI ecosystem, the report calls for “a high degree of social responsibility” from the corporate sector, and if they don’t “optimise the introduction of AI over a longer horizon and do not handle it with sensitivity, the demand for policy intervention and the demand on fiscal resources to compensate will be irresistible.” In a press conference, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran declined to say if this translated to taxing firms that replace workers with AI.