‘IT, BPO services will disappear in the next 5 yrs’: Vinod Khosla on how Indian job landscape could change

Some services like IT and BPO are nearing their end – all thanks to artificial intelligence, said tech billionaire and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla in an interview. It is also likely to bring down inflation, he said. 

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Khosla said a lot of how AI is deployed will be based on politics and policy implementation. Some countries are likely to slow the implementation down, said Khosla, adding that the focus on job creation might not be the right answer. 

“In a decade and a half, India could become the largest exporter of AI based goods and services to the rest of the world, not IT services. IT and BPO services will disappear, almost certainly within the next five years. So the 250 million young people in India should be selling AI based products and services to the rest of the world, as they start to appear on the job market. I think that’s where the economic opportunity has to go. Almost no economist or business manager is thinking about it. It’s a huge danger, and we can’t ignore it,” he said. 

In the interview, he said that AI can be an accountant, physician, doctor, oncologist, mental health therapist, physical therapist, chip designer, architect, sales person. “The next wave of larger revolution coming is robotics. So most labor - it doesn’t matter whether it’s cleaning the dishes in your kitchen or working on an assembly line or working as a farm worker – robots will be doing those jobs, and I think they will take five years to mature,”  said Khosla. 

The biggest impact will be on jobs, said the billionaire. Things will be “so much easier” and “so much cheaper” to do, he said. “You know robotic labour will cost two or $3 an hour, not $20 an hour. So my bet is you will see reduced inflation and then a huge deflationary economy by 2035 globally,” said Khosla.