India – Robots to make 700,000 low-skilled IT and BPO jobs obsolete, but high-skilled and medium-skilled jobs could see an increase

Approximately 700,000 low-skilled IT and BPO jobs in India will be lost because of automation by 2022, according to research from US-based research firm HfS Research.

The report shows that due to a rise in adoption of automation and artificial intelligence, the number of low skilled workers in India’s IT and BPO service sectors could fall from 2.4 million in 2016 to 1.7 million in 2022; however the report predicts that medium and high skilled jobs will see a rise during the same period. The number of medium skilled jobs in the IT/BPO industry in India could rise from 900,000 to 1 million by 2022, while the number of high skilled jobs could rise to 510,000 in 2022 from 320,000 in 2016.

The research firm cites the aggressive uptake of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and AI as the primary reasons for the reduction in headcount. It adds that automation is merely accelerating the elimination of low-skilled jobs while increasing the need of high-skilled jobs by 57%.

“The emergence of RPA is eventually going to sound the death knell for most high-throughput, high-intensity jobs, as both service providers and enterprises master the ability to apply these technologies effectively,” the report stated. “The next five years we can manage, it’s the five after that when the impact on labour becomes much more challenging.”

Source: India – Robots to make 700,000 low-skilled IT and BPO jobs obsolete, but high-skilled and medium-skilled jobs could see an increase