'Number Of Jobs Has Increased!'

'There are new job roles that are emerging because of AI.'

Job losses, job losses and AI.

This is what we have been hearing in the last few months.

We also hear that large tech companies are investing trillions of dollars in one technology. That is Artificial Intelligence.

On top of that, Geoffrey Hinton, known as the 'Godfather of AI', warns that 80% of jobs globally will be taken over by AI. He also predicts mass unemployment, economic collapse, loss of critical thinking and wars of terrifying scale!

The Career Outlook report for HY July-December 2025 by TeamLease EdTech found that India's job market has a 70% intent to hire freshers which is a 4% decline from the previous half year of 2025.

Shobha Warrier/Rediff asked Jaideep Kewalramani, Head of Employability and COO at Teamlease EdTech, how much AI has affected the job market in India.

"Certain jobs have increased productivity, so there is a slowdown in hiring there, but new job roles are also being created," says Jaideep Kewalramani.

Reports say more than 1 lakh people in the tech industry were laid off in 2025 alone and they say, it is because of AI. From your experience, how much has the job scene in India affected due to AI?

Yes, there would have been some impact due to AI although there is no quantifiable data available to show us the impact of AI directly on jobs in India.

And companies have not reported that the layoffs were because of AI.

However, more than a lay-off, what we see is a job displacement scenario.

We see that certain job functions have been automated through agentic AI and productivity has gone up.

There are two types of impact. One is, there is a slowdown of hiring in certain roles as productivity of people have gone up because of AI.

But there are new job roles that are emerging because of AI. We have started seeing new AI enables job roles getting advertised today.

For example, someone who can integrate LLM (Large Language Model) in addition to search engine optimisation.

Today, search has shifted from traditional search engines like Google to the ChatGPTs and the Perplexities of the world.

So, businesses need to figure out a mechanism to appear on the search mechanisms as well.

The second integration that has happened is the LLMs -- ChatGPT or Gemini -- are becoming parallel storefronts. These require new skill sets and new jobs are emerging here.

The end result is, certain jobs have increased productivity, so there is a slowdown in hiring there, but new job roles are also being created.

On one side, there are job losses, and on the other, new jobs are getting created. Which is happening more, job losses or new job creation?

The demand from industry for a variety of job roles remains high. The hiring intent continues to be high.

There are new jobs that are being created.

Net result. No negative impact on the availability of jobs.

It is just that jobs roles are changing.

Your report says hiring of freshers dipped to 70% in July-December 2025, a 4% decline from the previous half year. What do you think are the reasons for this dip? AI?

Smaller organisations are looking at hiring freshers more than the larger organisations, thus impacting the hiring volumes.

This shows the transition that the industry is going through, and how job roles are getting transformed due the requirement of new skill sets.

A lot of organisations are looking to hire freshers with the new digital skills.

There could be some seasonal fluctuations. But at the macro level, we have not seen any shrinkage of job roles.

Maybe in some pockets, there might be some shrinkage but that is compensated by new job roles at another level.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could wipe out 50% of all entry level white-collar jobs....

Not all entry level jobs have been impacted due to AI.

We have to look at this from three ways.

One, the jobs that have zero impact due to AI because of the nature of work. For example, medicine or shop floor engineering are yet to be impacted. These are still outside of the AI influence.

Two, where there has been an AI penetration, and the job descriptions now require AI skills in the workplace.

Third is where automation or enhancements have changed the productivity level. It is here that there is a slowdown of hiring because of AI.

So, all three put together, I would say the number of jobs has increased!

And for the freshers, the biggest tool they can have is, get the skill sets and be AI ready, and have an AI centric career outlook.

Other than the influence of AI, a lot of things are happening in the world right now, like the trade tariffs, fear of a recession in the US... How do you describe the job scenario as a whole?

There are some headwinds in certain industries.

We are seeing some businesses starting to lay off but that is more of right sizing.

One company was very open about the fact that they were downsizing because of the AI efficiency.

Have the cost cutting and downsizing of the US companies affected the Indian job market, in any way?

Not yet. One reason is, the GCCs (Global Capability Centres/em>) are quite willing to hire. Even the tech companies who are offering third party solutions continue to hire.

So far, there is no direct announcement by any Indian company or an international company operating in India that they are reducing jobs because of AI.

The World Bank report said that AI had caused a 20% decline in white-collar jobs in South Asia. How do you see this?

The 20% impact may be because of the churning of the roles of various jobs.

The World Bank report is referring to the decline in the job listings for highly substitutable white-collar roles.

We must understand what the highly substitutable white-collar jobs are. For example, in the US, 60% of the job roles have heavy digital component. And wherever there is digital, there is bound to have an impact of AI.

The decline in job listing also could be seasonal.

If you look at the World Bank report closely, it says in general that the job listings have declined. But there is no definitive statement that says, it is because of AI that the job listing has declined.

In the Indian context, there has been no specific announcement by companies saying AI has replaced jobs.

Has AI impacted the gig economy in India? Is there a decline in blue and grey collar jobs?

We have to look at the gig economy in two ways.

One is the gig economy where people with digital skills are serving in tech roles and design content and so on. We see a significant productivity increase over there.

So, the number of job listings may have gone down. That is only because productivity has gone up.

But if you look at hard skills where you need a rider to be on the road to deliver goods or do the logistics and supply chain fulfilment, AI has improved efficiency.

So, it is not going to replace jobs but make them more efficient.

Here there is an impact of AI on jobs and that is because of an improvement in efficiency.

Next. the new roles that are emerging in AI are very interesting.

But certain hard skills are yet to be touched by AI.

The sum of everything put together, the number of new jobs is increasing.

So, it is a positive outlook for the gig economy.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff