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Gagan Arora is a first-generation tech entrepreneur who built Vertex Group from a garage startup into a global technology enterprise spanning multiple countries. He has driven rapid growth and innovation in digital transformation. Recognized with multiple global accolades, he is passionate about empowering youth, fostering entrepreneurship, and building world-class solutions “Made in India for the World.”

Artificial Intelligence is no longer in the phase of experimentation. Rather, it is now a part of enterprise systems, developer ecosystems, business strategies in boardrooms, and policy plans in governments. But one question that continues to haunt the industry with rising AI adoption in different sectors is: Will AI lead to job loss in the field of Information Technology?

The answer to this question lies in the fact that although generative AI tools have become adept at writing code, testing software, creating documentation, and even managing cloud infrastructure workflows, one cannot overlook the rising instances of job losses in the field that have captured the headlines. But statistics reveal a different story.

The World Economic Forum’s "Future of Jobs Report 2025" reveals that although 92 million jobs are likely to be lost worldwide due to AI and other technological shifts in the upcoming years, around 170 million new jobs are also likely to emerge in the same time frame. This reveals that instead of job destruction, AI is likely to change job roles.

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The debate was revived briefly at a recent AI Impact Summit, where the issue of massive employment loss due to AI was raised. However, the larger picture reveals that something more complex is at play, and that is not extinction but evolution.

Automation Anxiety vs Economic Reality
The disruption caused by technology has always followed a predictable pattern: Fear, Adjustment, and Growth. In a report released by the IMF in 2024, it was revealed that nearly 40 percent of global employment is exposed to AI. What is more important to note is that in advanced economies like that of India’s, which is driven by the IT sector, half of that exposed employment is likely to be augmented, not eliminated.

In a similar vein, the AI Index Report released by Stanford University in 2025 revealed that AI investment and enterprise integration are at a record high, but employment in AI-related fields has continued to grow around the world, especially in fields that require domain expertise and technical skills. This is a key difference between employment that is exposed to AI and employment that is eliminated by AI. Exposed employment is where AI can perform a particular task in a larger employment context. Elimination means the entire job disappears. History shows the former is far more common than the latter.

In fact, a study carried out by McKinsey & Company in 2023-24 predicted that generative AI could automate as much as 30 percent of the total hours worked in the US economy by 2030, but at the same time, it could also raise productivity and create new occupations, especially in tech, product development, cybersecurity, and data architecture. The composition of work is changed before the quantity of work is affected.

The Indian IT Sector: Vulnerable or Well-Positioned?
India's IT service industry, traditionally based on economies of scale and cost efficiency through the standardization of processes, is naturally vulnerable to the effects of automation. Indeed, entry-level coding, testing, and support work is benefiting from the increased productivity offered by AI copilots and code generators.

However, recent reporting by Reuters on the state of the industry reveals that the leadership at Tata Consultancy Services has actively encouraged the adoption of AI tools among employees. Moreover, the company has recognized the possibility that the increased efficiency offered by AI tools will change the traditional billing structure. The strategic message is one of necessity: change is not a choice; it is a necessity.

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While the slowdown in the hiring of IT personnel is a reality, the industry is not declining; rather, the hiring is moving into the emerging fields of AI integrators, cloud experts, model governance specialists, cybersecurity experts, prompt engineers, and AI ethicists.

The Indian IT workforce is not declining; rather, the workforce is being re-skilled.

Complementarity: The Core of AI-Human Synergy
However, the real change is taking place in the domain of ‘complementarity’.

According to a study which analyzed millions of job posts worldwide, the demand for complex problem-solving, systems thinking, critical reasoning, and cross-functional collaboration is on the rise. Code generation is something computers can do with AI; organizational politics, customer psychology, and legal complexities are something only humans can do.

While computers using AI can generate code, they cannot comprehend organizational politics, customer psychology, and legal complexities.

Not only is the creation of code taking place at a faster rate with the help of AI copilots, but the same phenomenon is also visible in other fields. Programmers do not need to write code; they need to oversee the code created by AI. This is the ‘complementarity’ we were talking about. This is not a new phenomenon; we have seen similar situations in the past. Calculators were invented; however, we still need mathematicians. Similarly, spreadsheets were invented; however, we still need accountants. Likewise, cloud computing was invented; however, we still need IT infrastructure.

Productivity, Not Redundancy
One of the most compelling arguments that challenges the “AI kills jobs” narrative is that of productivity economics. As the World Economic Forum has emphasized several times, the most quantifiable impact of AI so far is that of “productivity improvement.” Productivity improvement helps reduce costs, increase output, and often fuels demand, which in turn creates new forms of employment.

The 2025 AI Index report also states that AI adoption is positively correlated with revenue growth in firms that adopt AI strategically. And when firms grow, they hire – although not necessarily in the same way.

In addition to this, demographic and economic conditions also support the argument that AI is not a threat. In the developed world, there is a talent deficit in fields such as STEM, cybersecurity, and AI itself. And in the case of India, the demographic dividend, coupled with AI literacy, makes the country a beneficiary of AI, not a loser.

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Where the Real Risk Lies
The real risk is not AI. It is stagnation. Workers who think of AI as an external risk, rather than an internal enabler of intelligence, will fall behind. Companies that don’t invest in re-skilling will lose out. Policymakers who don’t provide clear regulation will slow down progress. According to the IMF, countries with good education systems and flexible labour policies will reap the benefits of AI. Those without these systems will face a period of disruption. This is not determinism. This is about policies and preparations. The future of the IT industry is not about whether AI is here. It is about how quickly we transform from execution-centric to intelligence-centric.

From Coders to Cognitive Strategists
The IT worker of the future will not be a coder alone. He/she will be:

• Designer of AI integrated systems
• Auditors of bias in algorithms
• AI Infrastructure security specialists
• Translators of business needs into machine code
• Data ethics and compliance specialists

These are not jobs that require less human thought, but more. We need to move the conversation away from jobs angst and towards skills strategy.

Conclusion: Beyond the Binary
The debate between AI and IT jobs is, at its core, a false dichotomy. The very nature of the debate assumes a zero-sum game between human labour and machine intelligence. However, the facts tell a very different story.

If the World Economic Forum’s figures are to be believed, and the levels of investment in this field continue to grow, then AI may well prove to be one of the single biggest labour market movers in history. However, it will not prove to be a destroyer of jobs.

The future of IT will not be defined by the replacement of human labour with machine intelligence. The future of IT will be defined by the human labourer who can harness the benefits of automation intelligently.

AI will not destroy the IT industry. Instead, it will challenge it to grow – to move beyond scale and sophistication, beyond execution and orchestration, beyond coding and cognition. The debate over whether AI will change the nature of IT jobs is over. It already has.