Indian tech billionaire and Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu has triggered a wide discussion online after sharing a blunt take on artificial intelligence, layoffs, and the weakening global economy.
In a detailed post on X, Vembu questioned why so many people in the United States, including college students, have started looking at AI with fear and frustration even though the country is leading the world in the technology.
“How is it that in the US, the AI leader, a good part of the population, even a lot of college students, have come to hate AI?” he wrote.
His comments come at a time when several big tech companies are cutting jobs while also heavily investing in artificial intelligence, leading to growing worries among workers about the future of employment.
‘Companies are blaming job losses on AI’
In his post, Vembu argued that many companies are using AI as an easy explanation for layoffs even when the real issue may be economic pressure and rising costs. According to him, calling layoffs “AI-driven” helps companies look modern and future-ready, while hiding bigger business struggles.
“It does not help that companies are blaming job losses on AI, which is both convenient and as an added bonus, makes a company look visionary,” he wrote. The Zoho chief said businesses across sectors are dealing with financial strain and higher operating costs. He added that his own company has also seen these pressures first-hand.
“The layoffs are related to rising cost pressures, we experience those pressures too so we know this first hand,” Vembu said.
Vembu says economic picture is ‘getting grimmer’
Vembu also spoke about the larger state of the American economy and warned that the situation may become tougher in the coming years. “The economic picture is getting grimmer,” he wrote.
He said the huge amount of money flowing into artificial intelligence has helped keep confidence in the US economy alive for now, but warned that the momentum may not continue forever.
“The AI investment bubble has kept the US economy afloat but that can only go on for so long,” he said.
Over the last two years, companies around the world have poured billions into AI products, data centres, and chip infrastructure, while investors continue to bet heavily on the technology’s future.
‘The post-World War II order is collapsing’
Vembu then took his take beyond AI and linked current economic troubles to much larger global shifts that, according to him, have been building for years. He said the world may be witnessing the slow breakdown of the global political and economic system that emerged after World War II.
“Before you think ‘orange man bad’, this process was well under way with the global financial crisis in 2008-9,” he wrote. He urged people to look at long-term economic changes instead of focusing only on short political cycles or election debates.
“That is why I said ‘zoom out’, think in decades,” he added.
AI alone cannot solve global problems, says Zoho founder
The Zoho founder also pushed back against the growing belief that artificial intelligence will automatically solve deeper economic problems around the world.
To make his point, he compared the current AI boom to the smartphone revolution that followed the launch of Apple’s iPhone. According to him, even that major technological shift could not stop the 2008 global financial crisis.
“Note that the iPhone-unleashed mobile revolution did not prevent the GFC. AI will not magically cure global imbalances,” he wrote.
Vembu ended his post with a warning that difficult times may lie ahead globally. At the same time, he said he would be open to hearing views that challenge his thinking. “We must prepare for tough times ahead. I would be happy to be proved wrong, so please present ideas that disagree with this.”