NEW DELHI: Generative AI has begun cutting into entry-level white-collar hiring in India even as the demand for wo-rkers with AI skills grows, signalling a labour market where some junior roles may disa-ppear while new occupations emerge, World Bank has said.In ‘The World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence’, it said GenAI reduced monthly job postings in India for white-collar occupations most amenable to AI and least complementary to it, with entry-level workers disproportionately affected.Across South Asia, job postings by firms declined 1.6% after ChatGPT’s launch in Nov 2022, with a larger impact on multinational affiliates and suppliers linked to global value chains. Among the most exposed white-collar occupations where AI offers ready substitutes, monthly job listings fell by about 20%.Gaurav Nayyar, who led the World Bank team, told TOI the impact would not be uniformly negative. Some occupations in IT and knowledge-intensive services can be automated, he said, while other entry-level jobs would continue to grow and be complemented by AI. Roles like pro-mpt engineers and AI ethics specialists are also emerging.
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The “critical” part, Nayyar said, was for Indian IT businesses and higher education institutions to impart skills that allow workers to “pivot and adapt” as demands change. He cautioned against excessive specialisation, noting that coding, once seen as a lucrative standalone skill, became one of AI’s early automation use cases. He argued for broad-based STEM education, engineering and scientific capacity that lets workers move across occupations.In the first half of 2025, AI-skill vacancies were over five times more common in high-income economies than middle-income ones, but India was among the leading middle-income countries.
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