Bengaluru, India’s tech hub, might face an unprecedented wave of job losses as a result of AI automation, a viral Reddit publish has claimed. The publish warns that low-salary IT staff may very well be laid off en masse within the coming months, triggering a ripple impact on town’s financial system — significantly on PG lodging and small companies that depend upon tech employees.
“All of the landlords round ORR who invested crores anticipating long-term returns are going to be closely dissatisfied,” the person wrote, predicting a dip in rental demand and even improved site visitors circumstances across the metropolis.
Drawing a parallel between AI’s affect on software program improvement and the printing press’s impact on training, the person argued that AI can now carry out the duties of entry-level software program builders “with significantly better confidence and accuracy for a really small worth.”
Past IT, the publish urged that automation will quickly disrupt finance, operations, and accounting roles, calling it a “main issue for the largest downturn within the historical past of India.”
The publish sparked intense debate. One person famous that AI-powered chatbots and robotic course of automation (RPA) are already displacing BPO and name heart staff. One other pointed to layoffs amongst software program trainees, predicting “an enormous correction in developer salaries” however estimating that AI gained’t totally substitute area specialists for no less than 5 years.
Some noticed an upside. “Site visitors down ✅ Low rents ✅ Let’s carry that AI factor,” wrote one person, blaming landlords for frequent hire hikes. One other quipped, “COVID-19 couldn’t break the rental market, however AI will.”
One person argued that top rents in Bengaluru aren’t solely pushed by job demand however by tenant habits. “Lease isn’t excessive due to the job market… it’s excessive due to how folks work together with it. Many bachelors and roommates break up housing prices, permitting them to afford larger rents with out feeling the pressure individually. This provides landlords the facility to cost extra, realizing tenants can divide the expense. Over time, this skews the market, pushing up costs even for individuals who desire to dwell alone. As an alternative of negotiating or resisting overpriced listings, folks settle for inflated charges as a result of, when break up, they appear manageable.”
One other person dismissed fears of AI-driven job losses, arguing that IT roles aren’t disappearing anytime quickly. “I work in AI within the US, and these IT jobs aren’t going wherever. New fashions are already operating out of knowledge to coach on. We barely have sufficient new information for larger fashions. Somebody nonetheless has to learn, evaluate, and preserve the code AI writes, and AI is horrible at this — even with good prompts. It lacks reasoning abilities, particularly with bigger codebases, and struggles to make small modifications with out breaking issues. AI would possibly increase productiveness, however people are nonetheless required at each step.”