"Easy Jobs Are Gone": AI Boom May Hit IIT Placements, Says Ramesh Damani

Veteran investor Ramesh Damani has warned that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence could wipe out traditional entry-level software jobs for graduates from IITs and other technical institutes.

Speaking in a conversation with NDTV Profit, Damani said the kind of "easy" entry-level roles that engineering graduates once secured straight out of college may no longer exist as companies increasingly turn to AI-driven systems.

"The easy entry-level software jobs that people got graduating from IIT or technical institutes will probably be gone," Damani said, pointing to the growing adoption of agentic AI across the global technology sector.

He added that the AI boom is real and irreversible, and Indian IT companies must prepare for a major shift in how work is done. However, Damani noted that job losses at the entry level could be partly balanced by growth in Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India.

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"There's a lot of movement in Global Capability Centres in India, which will take the role of software, so there will be employment there," he told NDTV Profit.

Despite concerns, Damani said AI would also create entirely new types of jobs, much like previous technological changes did in the past. He compared today's situation to earlier decades, when roles such as ATM specialists or YouTube influencers did not exist. While acknowledging short-term uncertainty, he said the overall IT employment landscape should remain stable in the long run.

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Damani also highlighted the sharp rise in productivity driven by AI, citing an example of modern AI firms operating with far fewer employees. He pointed out that AI company Anthropic, valued at around $350 billion, has only about 2,000 employees, compared with nearly 16 lakh workers employed by India's top seven IT firms combined.

His comments come amid a challenging global tech environment. In 2025 alone, artificial intelligence contributed to nearly 55,000 job cuts in the United States, according to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.