'This is not inefficiency, this is automation': Former HCL CEO flags deep shift in India’s IT workforce

As artificial intelligence begins to reshape how companies hire, deploy talent and scale operations, questions are growing about whether India’s large IT workforce is equipped for this transition.

In a LinkedIn post, Vineet Nayar, Founder of Sampark Foundation and former CEO of HCL Technologies, laid out a similar structural concern, sharing a series of quote graphics on how the industry has been trained for a different era.

 

 

 

“The future of Indian IT will not just be written in code. It will be written in how we prepare people for change,” Nayar wrote.

He said the issue is not about capability, but about conditioning. “MOST INDIAN IT PROFESSIONALS ARE NOT READY FOR AI. Not because they are not smart. Because they were trained for a different game,” he noted.

The former CEO also traced this back to the model that powered India’s IT rise. “For 30 years, we built a winning model: Break work into small tasks. Train people fast. Execute at scale. It worked brilliantly,” he wrote, describing the execution-led framework that defined the industry’s growth.

That model, he said, is now being disrupted. “AI just changed the rules. What used to need 10 people may soon need 2. This is not inefficiency. This is automation,” Nayar added, pointing to how workforce structures could shrink as AI tools scale.

He argued that the nature of work itself is shifting. “The new winners will be different: Not coding. But designing. Not following. But diagnosing. Not doing. But solving,” he wrote, outlining the shift toward higher-order skills.

“Here is the real problem: We are not training for this,” Nayar said, flagging a gap between industry needs and current preparation.

“This is not just a company issue. It is an education issue. We are still teaching for repetition. The world now rewards thinking,” Nayar observed, pointing to a deeper structural gap that begins in classrooms.

He linked India’s past success to execution strength, but suggested the next phase will demand a different capability. “Execution built India’s IT success. Thinking will define its future. And that shift does not start in companies. It starts in classrooms,” he wrote.