India needs to create jobs that use AI, jobs that are AI-insulated: CEA Nageswaran

CEA Nageswaran said India needs to pay particular attention to junior-level jobs as AI reshapes employment, warning that a delay in young workers getting their first jobs could have long-term consequences. “A bad start or a delayed start will be a scar for many years in terms of earnings and returns flow to capital and seniority while the young are told to wait.”

India needs to focus on creating jobs that use artificial intelligence and jobs that are AI insulated, Chief Economic Adviser Anantha V Nageswaran said, stating that junior level jobs are already slower than what they were before AI and could have implications for inequality. Speaking at the 13th SBI Banking & Economic Conclave , Nageswaran said AI is not only about being in the frontier development model space, but also about macroeconomics and employability. “The good news is that the paper that Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab came out with two, three days ago, led by an Indian researcher, they looked at 41 countries and the evidence is actually they basically analysed 1.25 billion job postings, 154 million employment records including India,” he said.

“What they came up with is that yes, junior workforce gets affected but overall senior employment picks up and total employment picks up etc. This is their paper which is good news at one level that the massive labour shock that we anticipated isn't materialising yet,” Nageswaran said. “But from the Indian standpoint, given the demographic dividend, we have to be mindful that junior-level jobs are indeed slower than what was there pre-AI because a young country with a narrowing door has to worry.

Source link