'Main problem we should be worried as a society is...': Financial planner sounds alarm on rising threat of AI & automation

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to take a toll on the IT job market, with entry-level positions in the industry disappearing and existing professionals facing job losses, warns financial expert D. Muthukrishnan. In a tweet Sunday, he highlighted the growing risk AI poses to coding jobs, stating that automation is rendering many traditional roles obsolete, leaving both employers and employees uncertain about the future.

"Jobs, especially entry-level jobs in the IT industry, have started disappearing. Existing people are losing jobs, and new jobs are not being added. Looks like, very shortly, most of the coding jobs would cease to exist. Any job which can be done by AI is at risk. And AI is becoming capable of performing a lot of jobs," Muthukrishnan tweeted.

The IT sector, which has long been a pillar of economic growth in India, has provided stable, high-paying jobs to millions, helping create a thriving middle class. However, AI-powered automation is now raising fears that many of these jobs could 
vanish, making it difficult for fresh graduates and professionals to secure employment.

Industry leaders and analysts have repeatedly warned that AI’s ability to write code, analyze data, and even develop software could significantly reduce the need for human programmers. A couple of days ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the AI his company is building might eventually reduce the need for software engineers. “Each software engineer will just do much, much more for a while,” he said. “And then at some point, yeah, maybe we do need less software engineers.”

Large companies are increasingly adopting AI-driven solutions to cut costs and improve efficiency, further limiting the demand for traditional IT roles.

Muthukrishnan also pointed out that India, already grappling with widespread poverty and unemployment, cannot afford further job losses. "With AI, automation, and robots, the main problem we should be worried about as a society is creating jobs. We are already a poor country with many struggling to survive. Losing or not getting jobs is the last thing we need," he cautioned.

While some experts believe that AI will create new opportunities in emerging fields such as AI development, cybersecurity, and data science, others worry that these new roles may not be enough to offset the large-scale job losses in traditional IT services.