Is automation a threat to Indian IT?

Automation is seen having a serious aftermath on the Indian IT sector. A lot of Indian as well as outsider IT firms have either laid off a major chunk of employees or are planning to do so in the near future. The employees are caught in between a slump in India’s previously booming IT industry and new technology threatening to replace human workers. Cost-cutting is leading to many ‘underperformers’ being shredded.

Rapidly improving automation technology is allowing software to carry out routine IT support work and repetitive back-office tasks previously performed by humans. These are the very tasks global companies originally outsourced to India to take advantage of cheaper labor.

The companies are also pushing their employees into more advanced projects. Automation allowed India’s third-largest IT firm Infosys to shift 9,000 workers from low-skill jobs to more advanced projects, like machine learning and artificial intelligence in 2016. Wipro redeployed 3,200 employees in 2016 and moved another 4,500 in 2017.

But, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Hiring has seen a significant slow. According to the IT body Nasscom’s annual review, a 20-to-25% reduction in jobs in the industry over the next three years is predicted. According to the World Bank, 69% of today’s jobs in India are threatened by automation.Indian textiles giant Raymond said it would replace 10,000 jobs with robots over three years.

Though the concept of robots replacing human workforce is far-fetched, the nation is slowly but surely moving towards it.