India Has The Tools & Policy To Manage Positive Transition To AI: Satya Nadella

At a time when the sword of AI-led automation looms over job markets globally, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reportedly said that India has both the policy and the tools to effectively manage the transition to the emerging technology in a net positive way. 

Nadella made the comments during an interview with CNBC-TV18 right after landing in India on Wednesday (February 7) for a two-day visit. 

While he did not elaborate on what these tools were, the Microsoft CEO said that job displacement was a ‘given whenever any new technology comes into play’. 

“I also am very optimistic that we even have both the policy tools and the actual tools to help us manage this transition,” Nadella said.

Nadella acknowledged concerns about potential job losses due to AI but also touted its benefits. He emphasised that as certain sectors become more efficient, the workforce from those sectors can disperse more widely.

“If there is one sector that’s getting good and more efficient, some of the labour force in that sector will disperse more broadly,” Nadella told CNBC-TV18.

Claiming that the current generation of AI reduces the learning curve, the Microsoft CEO said that this aspect could be leveraged by individuals displaced mid-career to acquire new skills more quickly and easily.

Highlighting the transformative impact of AI on economic productivity, Nadella said that he has not seen a general-purpose technology that has such a broad impact as AI. He also said that the technology could improve wages as more expert work is being done by non-experts. 

“They may have domain expertise but they may not have all the knowledge and so therefore, I think that they could even be better wage-supported new jobs,” he said.

The Indian-origin CEO also described the current AI era as one where expertise is readily accessible, particularly in fields like retail and healthcare. 

His comments come at a time when apprehensions continue over job losses on account of AI-led automation. OpenAI founder Sam Altman last year said that AI may cause some disruptions in the global job market. 

Later, Zoho cofounder Sridhar Vembu, in a letter co-signed by former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar and iSPIRIT Foundation co-founder Sharad Sharma, asked India’s policymakers to regulate AI as it could put millions of jobs at risk.

Amid all this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a global framework for the ethical use of AI.

A recent report by ServiceNow and Pearson noted that AI and automation will necessitate reskilling and upskilling of 16.2 Mn workers in India by 2027. It, however, also said that AI could create 4.7 Mn new tech jobs in the same period.

In India, where automation has not yet significantly transformed physical processes as in other countries, the manufacturing industry is set to undergo the most substantial changes, the report said.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of Indian corporates as well as startups – from Tech Mahindra to Infosys and from Zomato to Flipkart – are adopting AI. In addition, a slew of new-age tech startups have spawned in the recent past that leverage AI to build new use-cases and products.

As per an Inc42 report, there are more than 70 generative AI startups in India and such startups have raised funding of over $440 Mn since 2019. 

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