Marcellus Funding Managers founder Saurabh Mukherjea has sounded the alarm on the complacency of India’s middle-class white-collar workforce within the face of rising AI-driven disruption.
Utilizing Naukri’s job index as a measure, Mukherjea defined that whereas the West faces labor shortages and an ageing inhabitants, India, with a median age of simply 28 and 10 million graduates yearly, faces a much more “worrisome” state of affairs.
“Such is the character of free market economies — worrisome conditions will develop, however what’s making me extra perturbed is there would not appear to be that a lot realization that the state of affairs is worrisome,” he mentioned in a podcast with Mint.
Mukherjea famous that whereas 22-23 year-olds are understandably job searching, he’s involved that professionals of their 30s and 40s — these already deep into their careers — are usually not planning financially for a future the place job safety will quickly erode.
“I am not listening to from them loads of monetary planning occurring… pondering that I am 40 in the present day, I’ve 20 years left of working life, and I have to assume very fastidiously about my funds,” he mentioned.
He identified that spending habits on holidays, electronics, and automobiles appear out of sync with modest financial savings charges.
“Center class debt in India, fairly than financial savings, is among the many highest on this planet,” he warned, including that web family monetary financial savings are at a 50-year low.
Mukherjea predicts that many white-collar staff will quickly discover themselves successfully self-employed, very similar to legal professionals, accountants, or monetary planners in the present day. “I believe within the India of 10 years therefore, journalists, engineers, coders, bot trainers — all will likely be like that,” he mentioned.
Repetitive duties, particularly in sectors like HR, will more and more be automated by generative AI.
“First the IT providers corporations and banks, then media homes, will change HR with bots,” Mukherjea mentioned, warning that steady workplace jobs may rapidly transition to freelance, gig-based roles.
Quoting former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Mukherjea famous that in 5 years, coders would possibly not be wanted.
“I really feel 2-3 years therefore India should readjust quick… shifting from ‘graduate and discover a job’ to ‘graduate and grow to be an entrepreneur’,” he mentioned.
