India’s white-collar workforce could face major disruption in the coming years as artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the workplace, according to market expert Saurabh Mukherjea. Speaking on a podcast, Mukherjea warned that the layoffs currently being seen in the technology sector may only be the beginning of a much larger shift driven by AI automation.
Quoting projections linked to a report by ServiceNow, Mukherjea said nearly 18 million jobs in India could be impacted by AI by 2030, while only around 3 million new technology-related jobs may be created during the same period. He described the situation as a possible net loss of 15 million jobs, though the report itself suggested many roles would be transformed or redefined instead of disappearing completely.
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“Abhi toh yeh trailer hai. Yeh shuruaat hai,” Mukherjea said, warning that the real impact would come once AI systems achieve near-human levels of reliability in digital and coding-related tasks.
According to him, AI tools are already operating at nearly 50 percent human-level reliability in certain coding functions. Over the next two to three years, he believes these systems could reach 90 to 100 percent reliability across large sections of tech work, significantly reducing the need for human labour in repetitive digital tasks.
Mukherjea also pointed to massive investments being made by global tech giants including Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Anthropic. He claimed these companies have collectively poured nearly $800 billion into AI infrastructure, data centres, chips, and large language models over the past year.
An EY survey referenced during the discussion showed that 58 percent of Global Capability Centres in India are already investing in agentic AI, while over 80 percent are focusing on generative AI solutions. Mukherjea warned that companies may increasingly automate tasks that can be performed without human involvement, potentially reshaping India’s white-collar employment landscape in the coming decade.
