Nandan Nilekani dismisses AI job-loss fears as 'hogwash', backing India's tech sector

Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani has brushed aside warnings of mass unemployment driven by artificial intelligence, calling widespread predictions of automated job losses "hogwash" and "disaster marketing" designed to serve the interests of concentrated global capital.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, the veteran technologist made the case that India's digital services ecosystem stands to expand rather than shrink as global commerce adopts AI tools. While advanced systems from firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic have shown an ability to generate programming code, Nilekani argued that basic coding represents only a fraction of what modern enterprise projects actually require.

"The requirement for companies like Infosys or others is actually more than ever before because the transformation of enterprise is a very complex activity, and AI requires you to fundamentally reimagine the way you do business," Nilekani said. "We are going to see only more work coming our way."

Nilekani acknowledged that firms will need to overhaul internal processes and continuously train staff, but he maintained that human oversight will remain central. Enterprises will require skilled specialists to guide AI rollouts, audit system security, manage operational risk, and adapt complex organisations to new technical workflows.

His upbeat stance contrasts with more pessimistic global assessments, including a warning from International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who has described AI as a "slow-moving tsunami" sweeping through international labour markets.

What domestic data shows

The domestic debate around automation was underscored on Sunday with the release of a study by Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran. The paper, AI, Automation and India’s Workforce: Who Gains, Who’s Exposed, and How Policy Can Shape the Future, analysed domestic labour patterns using Periodic Labour Force Survey data.

Authored by Vidya Mahambare of the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Vivek Jadhav of the Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad, and Indian Administrative Service officer Vishnu Venugopalan, the paper found that 11.4% of India’s workforce—around 197 million people—is employed in routine tasks susceptible to automation. By contrast, about 46 million workers, or 7.6%, occupy roles where AI directly complements human judgement and enhances output.

Those productivity gains are concentrated in states with deep human capital and mature industrial bases, where professionals such as engineers, scientists, managers, teachers, and healthcare staff are positioned to use AI as an assist rather than face displacement.

Northern and central states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh, register a lower proportion of jobs primed for immediate AI synergy, the researchers found.

Rather than pointing toward structural decline, the authors argued that early policy intervention can accelerate the shift into higher-productivity sectors. By pairing nationwide digital infrastructure with targeted reskilling programmes in critical thinking, healthcare, and engineering trades, India can systematically harness automation to fuel sustainable growth.