AI will Create More Jobs Than There are People
A simple LinkedIn search for ‘artificial intelligence’ in India throws up 12,800+ jobs, and Glassdoor lists out over 3,200 jobs – massive – given that there is only an active pool of approximately 2,000 senior AI engineers, who are actually building core AI products and services in the country.?
So, what are these numbers saying, anyway? The answer to this led us to the ‘Jevons Paradox’, which was first observed in the 1860s by the English economist, William Stanley Jevons, in his book The Coal Question. ?
As steam engines became more efficient, people did not use less coal, as one might expect; instead, they used more of it. This increase in coal usage occurred because the more efficient steam engines lowered operational costs, enabling more widespread and intensive use of the engines.?
Similarly, as generative AI gets more efficient, we might use it more–and not less–expanding its uses far beyond what was originally intended.?
“We keep thinking of each technology as displacing work. One of the things that is probably going to happen is it will create more jobs for people than we have people,” said Groq chief Jonathan Ross in a recent interview with SafeGraph CEO Auren Hoffman, adding that “there will suddenly be a lack of supply of people to do things”.
Citing the increase of graphics in news articles, he said that as generative AI simplifies tasks, we'll likely see increased human activity across various tasks. “There's always going to be someone who's going to be more entrepreneurial and figure out a way to monetise and get a whole bunch of people working on it,” said Ross.?
Industry insights: According to the WEF, AI will create over 97 million new roles and displace 85 million jobs by 2025. As per the Future of Jobs Report 2023, there will be a nearly 40% jump in the number of AI and machine learning specialists by 2027, a 30-35% rise in demand for roles such as data analysts and scientists or big data specialists, and a 31% increase in the demand for information security analysts.?
Check out the impact of generative AI across industries below:?
The Future of Jobs?
“The world just needs a lot more code than we have people to write right now,” declared OpenAI chief Sam Altman, saying, “You hear a coder say I’m like 2-3x times more productive,” rather than the other way around. He believes that AI is going to have a significant impact on how people are going to do jobs rather than job dislocation or replacement.?
In a recent study, AI researchers predicted that there is a 50% chance that AI will be capable of achieving several milestones by 2028. This includes autonomously constructing a payment processing site from scratch, creating chartbusters indistinguishable from a popular musician’s album, and autonomously downloading and fine-tuning a large language model.
It’s only a matter of time before new job roles will be added across the spectrum. Surprisingly, we are already seeing that happen (see below).?
Where are all the People??
India has the world's second-largest developer ecosystem, with nearly 5 million software engineers. This explains why most companies are expanding into the country and setting up their back offices here.?
Recently, NVIDIA chief Jensen Huang lauded Indian engineers, saying they are poised to lead the AI revolution with their rapid reskilling abilities, moving from backend IT roles to front-room positions where critical value is generated.?
Nandan Nilekani, touted as India's CTO, also echoed similar views when he said that India’s path in AI seems different, and the focus should be on building AI use cases that will reach every citizen.?
“We are not in the arms race to build the next LLM; let people with capital, let people who want to pedal ships do all that stuff… We are here to make a difference, and our aim is to put this technology in the hands of people,” said Nilekani.?
Besides Indian IT upskilling thousands of employees in generative AI, several AI and data science-focussed institutes have been mushrooming to cater to the demand for AI professionals in India and globally.?
So far, the top three Indian IT firms—TCS, Infosys, and Wipro—have trained a whopping 825,000 employees in generative AI. Also, about 1,300 colleges in the country offer full-time AI and machine learning courses.?
India is positioned perfectly to fuel the generative AI race.?
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Exited founder turned CEO-coach | Helping early/mid-stage startup founders scale into executive leaders & build low-drama companies
10 个月Fascinating perspective on the Jevons Paradox and AI job demand. Do these numbers reflect genuine expertise or inflated buzzword-driven roles? Intriguing food for thought.
Bhasker Gupta I'm adding it to my book list!
GEN AI Evangelist | #TechSherpa | #LiftOthersUp
10 个月New tech demands outpacing talent supply - intriguing Jevons Paradox concept. Thoughtful insights, sparking discussion on AI workforce dynamics. Bhasker Gupta
Insurance - Product Design - MIC Global
10 个月It's great to see a technology creating an economic boost in India. I hope the value it creates is long term. I would love to see India investing in its own future.