AI won't kill factory jobs, but it will change every manufacturing role: Siemens India CEO

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform manufacturing jobs rather than eliminate them, according to Sunil Mathur, Managing Director and CEO of Siemens India, who believes the technology will create new opportunities while making continuous upskilling essential for workers.

Speaking on the Business Today Podcast, Mathur sought to address growing concerns that automation and AI will replace human workers in factories. "I am much more positive and much more optimistic on the question of jobs," he said. "I think jobs will change. They won't go away, but jobs will change. The nature of jobs will change. When we went from the bicycle to the motorcar, jobs changed. When we went from the motorcar to the airplane, jobs changed. And productivity changed. And growth rates changed, right?"

'Jobs will change, they won't go away'

Mathur compared the AI revolution with earlier technological breakthroughs that transformed industries without eliminating the need for people.

"When we went from the bicycle to the motorcar, jobs changed. When we went from the motorcar to the airplane, jobs changed. And productivity changed. When we went from the fax machine to the telex machine to the internet, productivity changed. We became much more efficient and were able to do much more," he said.

He expects AI to follow a similar path by creating opportunities that do not exist today while pushing employees to constantly upgrade their skills.

"It will open up avenues for us that never existed yesterday. It will open up opportunities for us, but it will also challenge us to continuous learning. We will need to upskill ourselves," Mathur said, adding that AI adoption would be "an evolutionary process" rather than an overnight disruption.

Industrial AI demands 100% accuracy

Mathur also highlighted the key difference between generative AI and industrial AI, saying manufacturing environments require complete precision.

"When you talk about GenAI, you're looking more at information language models where if they're 95% accurate, it doesn't really matter. But on the industrial side, you can't be 95%. You've got to be 100% right, because if you are not 100% accurate, you could have a production line that stops, you could have an energy grid that trips, you could have a train that stops on the way," he said.

Rather than fully autonomous "dark factories" run entirely by robots, Mathur said the near-term future lies in combining electrification, automation, software and AI to make industrial operations more intelligent. AI can optimise energy use, improve inventory management, predict maintenance requirements and enhance production efficiency, he noted.

Technology will drive India's manufacturing ambitions

Mathur added that AI will be critical if India is to achieve its ambition of raising manufacturing's share of GDP from 15% to 25%.

He pointed out that India's average manufacturing productivity is about 75%, compared with 99.99% at some factories in Germany.

"There's no way you can bridge 25% productivity benefit just through skilling workers. Technology will be the only enabler," he said, noting that advanced manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, batteries and fuel cells require significantly higher levels of precision.

For businesses, Mathur said the focus should not be on replacing workers with AI but on enabling employees to work alongside intelligent systems. As India accelerates investments in manufacturing and infrastructure, companies that combine AI adoption with workforce upskilling will be better placed to improve productivity and remain globally competitive.