AI Will Create Opportunities In Unpredictable Sectors: Sridhar Vembu On AI-Linked Job Loss Fears

In the backdrop of $200 billion AI linked investments projected to enter India in the next two years, Sridhar Vembu, Founder of Zoho Corporation, said, AI is going to be a commodity, and so is intelligence, which will be available to all, however the challenge lies in figuring out better algorithms. 

Driving the focus to AI's role in enhancing rural education, he stressed on the need for purpose-built AI models to support teachers, and create practical projects to enable students to work on.

“These are purpose-built, small models that can solve specific problems effectively. We encourage our students to build projects. Nowadays, we are even building small-scale custom electric vehicles. In this process, AI is working as a massive learning booster,” Vembu said.

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Further, he also responded to wide spread concerns over job losses as a result of deploying artificial intelligence.

"Ultimately, see, if we have an open economy, our consumption story is very good and our people are adaptive. So I think jobs are going to get created in which sectors we cannot know, but AI is going to create opportunities. Take the 10 minute delivery that ultimately came from the smartphone," he said, citing media reports. 

"But when the smartphone arrived, we would not have known that the 10 minute delivery will arrive. So jobs are going to be created. We just don't know where, but that's why we need a lot of entrepreneurs who are figuring this out," he noted. 

Earlier today, the Union Electronics and IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said changes in curriculum of students will take place to ensure the upcoming talent pool is equipped to handle AI tools. ‘500 universities will be equipped with AI infrastructure, including compute capacity (GPUs) and updated curricula to foster a "talent pipeline" for the industry,’ he said. 

This announcement came after he noted that India expects to garner over $200 billion investments in the AI arena, covering startups, big solution providers, and research in cutting-edge models.