Sridhar Vembu on AI, jobs and the future economy: ‘It’s not a tech problem, it’s political economy’

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu.

Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has weighed in on the broader consequences of AI, especially its potential to disrupt employment. In a recent post on X, Vembu explored a hypothetical scenario where all software development is fully automated—a future he stressed we are nowhere close to achieving.

Still, he said, it’s important to consider the economic ramifications of such a world.

“If all software engineers like myself are out of work, it’s not as if human beings will have nothing to do,” he wrote. “The real problem is purely economic—how do people afford the goods pouring out of automated factories that employ no one?”

On the subject of AI and jobs: Hypothetically, if all software development were to be automated - I want to emphasize that we are _nowhere_ close to that goal - and all software engineers such as myself are out of work, it is not like human beings will have nothing to do.The
Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) June 7, 2025

Vembu outlined two possible solutions. First, prices of AI-produced goods and services could drop dramatically, possibly to zero—just like air, which we consume without cost or complaint. Second, the human-centered tasks that remain—childcare, nursing, cooking, farming, environmental restoration, spiritual care, local arts—might become highly valued and well paid. This, in turn, would allow income to circulate widely enough to support demand for those ultra-cheap goods.

“To put it differently, if robots and AI automate all production, the remaining human work would pay well because the goods themselves would be incredibly affordable,” he explained.

But Vembu emphasized that the challenge isn't technical—it's political. “This is fundamentally an economic distribution problem, a problem of political economy and not purely a technological problem,” he said.

A key part of addressing it, he argued, is for governments to break up monopolies—especially in tech. Without that, prices may not reflect the actual low costs brought on by automation and AI.

He ended on a note of cautious optimism: “There will be at least one country in the world that would get the political economy right.”