- To say that the global community is reaping the fruits of the digitalization revolution of the last couple of decades would be an understatement. Information technology-enabled innovations are not only dynamic in nature but also perpetual in their evolution, allowing the global community to embrace them with absolute glee. The adoption of technology-driven measures has eased administration in several ways, especially in ensuring the socio-welfare schemes reach out to the last man standing. The Indian establishment too has laid tremendous emphasis on digitalization efforts, and the fruits of the medium can be seen everywhere. No one is complaining since every other critical piece of information can be accessed/received/acted upon using a mere smartphone.
PC: freepik
- The power of information technology has immensely contributed to the overall development of the country in more than a few ways that need no further elaboration. The common man is reaping the benefits, which should warm the cockles of the administration. India was always blessed with an abundance of engineering talent, especially in the realm of software technology, which is well known as millions of students opted for those enticing courses. The talent pool available within the country was so huge that overseas countries laid a red carpet, attracting droves to move out in search of greener pastures. As mentioned above, dynamically evolving technology in the field of software has now created an anxious scenario that calls for honest introspection.
- A recent report suggests that there was unease spreading through an unusual labor demographic this International Workers’ Day. Anxiety levels among software professionals have gone up considerably over the past year, and this can be observed everywhere from Reddit and Quora to engineering campuses. While ChatGPT has captured the attention of the general public, Microsoft’s GitHub CoPilot, Amazon’s Code Whisperer, and the new coding features in Google’s Bard have captured the attention of computer programmers, developers, and coders. These are examples of how the tech titans seem to be rushing to end coding as we know it, done by humans. What does it portend for Indian software professionals? Let’s delve into it.
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- For a country like India, where a central aspirational narrative has been built around software jobs since the nineties, preparing for the changes that are coming is of the essence. In his opinion, AI and automation will replace 30% of IBM’s non-customer-facing jobs within the next five years. Stability AI’s CEO goes further by mentioning that there hasn’t been a programmer in five years. The important thing is to avoid unmanageable socio-economic disruptions on a large scale. Advancements in technology should not render entry-level coding workers redundant in the already crowded, unorganized sector. This will only entail welfare financing becoming a huge burden. Thus, creating more jobs, including those in the 16% Indian global AI talent pool, becomes imperative. Yes, action should ensue.
