How exactly does Generative AI impact IT jobs?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI)-- tech billionaire Bill Gates calls it the “most important” technological advancement in 40 years while Apple’s chief Tim Cook said AI in general will affect every product and every service that Apple operates in.

Back home, Generative AI’s use cases may impact the scope of work of close to 1% of India’s 5.4-million IT workforce, spread across sales and support departments, and create additional revenue potential of $2-3 billion for the industry, a new study has said.

According to market intelligence firm Unearth Insight’s study, India’s $245-billion IT services industry employs around 300,000 people in sales and support functions.

Out of this, around 50,000 to 60,000 employees’ work will get impacted over the next three to five years. India’s tech industry has 7% of its overall workforce employed in sales and support roles. This number is 6.1% for the top five players.

But it must be taken with a pinch of salt as this need not mean job losses or machines replacing humans completely; these roles will get impacted in a way that they may increasingly collaborate with AI-powered technology and coworkers.

Few examples of roles getting impacted are pre-sales, bid management, sales enablement and solution architect may get impacted by AI copilots doing lead generation or AI-curated sales content.

Similarly, some of the hiring, resource management functions such as external hiring, internal fulfillment and onboarding could be transformed by AI-generated profile screening and candidate recommendation and personalised onboarding.