Generative AI to transform 38 million jobs by 2030: EY India report

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Generative AI (Gen AI) adoption could transform 38 million jobs by 2030, according to an EY India report.

Gen AI will drive over 2.6 percent productivity in the Indian economy through gains in the organised sector and has the potential for an additional 2.8 percent in the unorganised sector, according to the report titled ‘How much productivity can GenAI unlock in India? The AIdea of India: 2025’.

The report further shows that 24 percent of tasks across industries have the potential for full automation, while another 42 percent can be enhanced through AI, freeing up between 8-10 hours per week for knowledge workers.

At an industry level, the largest productivity gains are expected in the services sector due to its higher labour share to gross output, while manufacturing and construction will see a smaller impact.

Only 3 percent of Indian enterprises possess sufficient in-house talent and resources to make the most of what AI has to offer, while the remaining 97 percent of executives lack talent, according to the findings based on a survey of over 125 C-suite participants.

Rajiv Memani, Chairman and CEO, EY India, said the Gen AI revolution will fundamentally reshape jobs, driving productivity, and innovation. "Building talent pipelines and prioritizing upskilling must be at the forefront of every organisation. By fostering public-private collaborations and investing in talent development, India can also become a global hub for AI-skilled talent,” Memani was quoted as saying in the release.

The survey reveals that adoption is still in its early stages.

Only 15 percent of surveyed enterprises have implemented Gen AI in production, with 34 percent having completed proof of concepts (PoCs) and 11 percent working on making POCs successful.

About 8 percent of those who have experimented with Gen AI report facing challenges in realising a tangible impact. On the other hand, over 35 percent of survey participants have yet to commence any experimentation, reflecting the early stage of adoption.

Enterprises in India are also at different stages of data readiness. Only 3 percent of surveyed enterprises report being fully ready, with 23 percent reporting that they’re in no state of data readiness to take up AI deployments.

EY’s analysis of over 10,000 tasks across industries shows varying productivity gains across sectors. Amongst the business processes to see the most impact are call centre management, which is likely to witness an 80 percent productivity enhancement, and software development with a potential for 61 percent growth in productivity.

Content development and distribution had 45 percent, followed by customer services at 44 percent, and sales and marketing at 41 percent.

Productivity boost in IT/ITeS is expected to be around 19 percent, followed by healthcare at 13 percent and banking/insurance at 8-9 percent.

Measuring Return on Investment (ROI) is critical for Gen AI investment decisions. Our survey of Indian enterprises also points to an inability to fully measure and allocate AI-related costs.

Of the 15 percent of Indian enterprises that report having Gen AI workloads in production, only half report being able to fully measure and allocate AI costs.

The survey highlights the need for a systematic means to predict the costs of, and measure the impact of, AI before we see greater adoption.

Also, read: Cost of using LLMs have dropped over 85% since early 2023: HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar