AI and Future Jobs

The McKinsey report is actually understating it. We're already seeing 40%+ automation in certain financial analysis roles. The question isn't IF but WHEN for most knowledge work.

But we said the same thing about industrial automation in the 60s and 70s. New jobs emerged that nobody predicted. Why should this be different?

Because the velocity is different. Industrial automation took 30 years to displace workers. This is happening in 5-7 year cycles. Retraining infrastructure can't keep up.

I work in HR at a mid-size tech company. We've already stopped hiring for 3 roles that existed 18 months ago. The automation happened quietly, no announcement.

The education system is the real bottleneck. We're still training people for roles that will be automated before they graduate. Universities need a complete curriculum overhaul.

Counterpoint: AI is creating entirely new categories of work. Prompt engineering, AI training, oversight, and governance are growing fields. The transition is painful but not terminal.

The problem with "new jobs will emerge" is that it assumes equal distribution of opportunity. In reality, AI benefits flow to capital holders, not workers. We need policy intervention.

Universal Basic Income discussion is now unavoidable. Finland's pilot showed promising results. The question is funding and political will.

The India-specific angle is interesting here. With 600M+ working age population and relatively low-skill services growing, the displacement could be disproportionately severe.

Exactly. India's IT sector employs ~5.4M people. A significant chunk of that is routine process work that's already being automated. We're talking about a structural employment crisis in 5-8 years.