Automation to take away 7 lakh low-skilled IT jobs by 2022: report

An increase in the level of automation and the use of Artificial Intelligence could affect around 7 lakh jobs in India's IT and BPO service sectors, bringing down the number of low- and semi-skilled workers from 2.4 million in 2016 to 1.7 million in 2022, says a new report.

The report by US-based research firm HfS Research, however, predicts that medium and high skilled jobs will see a rise during the period.

An addition of nearly 4 lakh skilled jobs could restrict overall job loss to around 3.2 lakh, according to the study.

The number of medium skilled jobs in IT / BPO industry in India could rise from 900,000 to 1 million by 2022, while the number of high skilled jobs could rise to 510,000 in 2022 from 320,000 in 2016.

Globally, the number of low skilled IT / BPO jobs are expected to fall by 31 per cent, while medium skilled jobs could increase by 13 per cent and high skilled jobs by 57 per cent, says the report.

Following the adoption of automation, the net job loss in Indian IT / BPO sector across skill levels is expected to be around 450,000, from 3.65 million in 2016 to 3.2 million in 2022.

The report noted that following the adoption of automation, globally total jobs in the IT / BPO space are expected to fall by 7.5 per cent with major countries like India, the US and the UK being hit.

According to the report, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is merely accelerating the elimination of rote jobs (routine jobs).

"The emergence of RPA is eventually going to sound the death knell for most high-throughput, high-intensity jobs, as both service providers and enterprises master the ability to apply these technologies effectively," it said.

It further said, "the next five years we can manage, it's the five after that when the impact on labour becomes much more challenging."