Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has raised concerns about artificial intelligence displacing workers and called for strategies to level the playing field between AI-driven automation and human labour. He acknowledged that the biggest barrier to AI's spread right now is not its intelligence but how hard it is to plug into real-world work processes. Despite the risks, Rajan stopped short of an entirely pessimistic view, suggesting the outlook for workers still has room for hope.
Source: LiveMint — Companies
Rajan's framing that integration challenges — not raw AI capability — are the real bottleneck gives Indian workers and businesses a meaningful runway to adapt and reskill before automation reaches full stride. His call for deliberate policy intervention signals growing mainstream recognition that worker protection must accompany technological change, which could push Indian policymakers to design stronger safety nets and retraining programmes. For job seekers who invest now in skills that complement AI — such as workflow design, human oversight, and domain expertise — this transition period represents a genuine window of opportunity.
The warning from a figure of Rajan's stature underlines that AI-driven job displacement is no longer a distant theoretical risk but a near-term concern that policymakers and employers must actively plan for. India's large workforce in mid-skill, task-repetitive roles — from back-office processing to data entry and customer support — faces the sharpest exposure as integration hurdles are gradually overcome. Without swift and coordinated action on reskilling and labour policy, significant portions of India's working population could find themselves structurally unemployed before adequate alternatives emerge.
If integration barriers ease at a moderate pace over the next five years, India could see measurable displacement in white-collar process roles, particularly in IT services, BPO, and shared-service centres that form a significant slice of formal employment. At the same time, there may be growth in roles centred on AI governance, prompt engineering, and human-AI collaboration, though whether these new positions will be numerous enough to absorb displaced workers remains genuinely uncertain. Policy responses — such as an AI tax or levy on automated labour as Rajan reportedly floated — could reshape hiring economics for companies operating in India, potentially slowing automation adoption or funding worker transition schemes. The net employment effect will likely depend heavily on how quickly Indian education and skilling ecosystems can pivot, and that trajectory is still far from clear.
This analysis is AI-generated commentary from Job Trends India, based on the linked source report — not verified, independent reporting. Spot something off?
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