Artificial Intelligence is putting white-collar professionals at the highest risk of job displacement, marking a sharp break from earlier waves of technological change, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said on Thursday.
Speaking at FICCI’s AI India Conclave, Krishnan said AI differs from past industrial revolutions because it directly targets cognitive labour, rather than physical or manual work.
“If you looked at previous industrial revolutions… the kind of change that they engineered, most of that change was around automating physical, manual work. For the first time, AI is actually replacing cognitive work. So it’s people who work with their minds who are at the greatest risk of replacement by AI,” he said.
Krishnan acknowledged concerns around job losses but stressed that AI also holds the potential to significantly raise productivity, especially in developing economies such as India.
He said the larger opportunity lies in the creation of new roles, provided workers are reskilled and upskilled to adapt to emerging technologies.
“Immediate temptation for many companies could be to look for the early wins and forget about the long-term issues that could come up, but as the government, we are concerned on both sides of this. It’s not that we are not concerned about job losses, but we believe that the opportunities for creation of newer kinds of jobs in newer areas is far greater, and that happens primarily through reskilling, upskilling, and talent development,” Krishnan said.
He added that preparing the workforce for an AI-driven future would require collective effort.
“This is a task which is common to all of us. It’s not just the government’s job, it’s not just an industry’s job; it’s not going to be a range of stakeholders who are going to be involved in this process,” he said.
The remarks come amid widespread concerns that AI may eliminate white-collar jobs around the globe. A recent survey of global CEOs by global marketing network Stagwell shows strong consensus that AI is entering a robust, long‑term growth phase and will boost productivity and profits, but many also warn it will weigh on white‑collar employment.
High‑profile tech and finance leaders (Amazon, Salesforce, Klarna, Shopify) have linked AI to hiring freezes or headcount cuts in corporate, customer‑support and other office functions, framing AI as a way to do “more with fewer heads”, according to a report in Business Insider.