IT students don't need to worry about losing jobs to AI
Technology
Humans will continue to be essential for solving modern problems
(Web Desk) - Ever since the arrival of AI tools like Copilot and ChatGPT, the IT industry has been in a bit of a panic.
Industries are undergoing significant changes, and particularly the IT sector has seen a notable impact from AI, sparking concerns about its effects on employment and workforce demands.
Additionally, there have been warnings from figures like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who raised alarms about AI potentially replacing coders in the future.
Recently, former HCL CEO Vineet Nayar, in an exclusive interview with India Today Tech, also cautioned that AI could result in IT companies needing 70 per cent fewer employees.
Statements like these have gone viral and have only added to the nervousness of people in the IT sector and the ones aspiring to be a part of it.
However, we recently spoke to one of India’s top IT college director who says “there is no need to panic”.
“When people talk about AI, they think about machines, and how it will take away jobs. But that is only one part of it. People aren’t talking enough about jobs that will be created because of AI.
We will need to develop AI tools, AI applications, AI-based services and AI support systems. All of these will be developed by human beings.
This means, a lot of new jobs will also come up in a big way,” says Professor Debabrata Das, Director, IIIT Bangalore.
Das gave us the example of calling up a customer care center a few years ago, which usually meant hours spent on the phone, explaining your issues and then being transferred to different departments.
However, now, the majority of these customer care calls are automated. A pre-recorded voice guides you through different options, but there is always the option to connect with a human being if the other options don’t work for you.
Similarly, Das says that in the future job market, AI and automation may take over some traditional jobs, but future jobs will focus on new problem-solving.
“Some issues will be handled by AI, but some will still be handled by humans,” he adds.
Das predicts that while AI will automate routine tasks, it will not be able to solve new problems or perform new work.
Human beings will continue to be essential for solving modern problems, developing solutions and algorithms, and integrating them into the existing list of AI algorithms.
AI will step in only when humans have found solutions to unsolved problems.
However, the uncertainty isn’t just around new jobs in the IT market, but also about job loss. In the past 12-15 months, thousands of people in the tech industry have been laid off.
And the job cuts haven’t exactly slowed down. In the first two months of 2024 alone, over 34,000 employees reportedly lost their jobs from more than 100 tech companies like Google and Amazon.
