Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu sees a painful rebalancing of jobs in the AI age

Zoho cofounder and chief scientist Sridhar Vembu has warned that artificial intelligence could allow one person to do the work of 10 in computer-based jobs, setting the stage for a painful economic adjustment even as cheaper services create demand in industries that previously could not afford them.

"Any job performed on the computer has this risk now: one smart person using AI can perform the work of 10 people,” Vembu wrote in a post on X. “The risk is getting ever more real," he added.

However, he warned against interpreting this productivity gain as a prediction that nine out of every 10 people working on computers would be left without work.


"This does not mean 90% of people working on a computer will have no work at all," he said.

The Zoho chief scientist pointed to software engineering and digital marketing as examples of services that could become affordable to industries that previously lacked the resources to hire such professionals. His argument suggests that lower costs could expand access to these services, even as AI changes how much work an individual can handle.

"What it does mean is a rebalancing across the economy and that is painful when we go through it," Vembu wrote. "The only thing we can do is to accept that it is coming and be prepared for it," he added.

Costs hit pay increases

His comments come as Zoho changes how it operates in response to AI and automation. Vembu has also said higher server prices and rising AI use have pushed up the company’s costs.

In an earlier post in October, he called the outlook for the software business uncertain and said server prices had gone up fourfold, increasing the cost of equipment needed for data centres. Rising AI usage was adding to expenses that the company was trying to control, he said.

Vembu also said geopolitical uncertainty was adding to Zoho’s challenges as it adapts to AI. The company has cut its marketing budget and told employees it cannot offer its usual annual salary increase.

"We have cut down on our marketing budget. We have also told our employees that we cannot have our usual pay increase this year," he wrote in the earlier post.

Vembu said that the company had not increased its employee count for 18 months, while stressing that it would work to avoid large-scale job cuts.

"We will work hard to avoid mass layoffs but the outlook for software jobs in general is grim," Vembu wrote.