Chennai, 26th October 2026: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) researchers are proposing that the effect of AI on jobs in India must be ascertained by looking at each task instead of whole jobs. Their whitepaper, released during the recent ‘Industry Conclave on AI Governance 2026’, comes as AI changes workplaces around the world.
The new whitepaper was brought out by researchers from Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), an interdisciplinary research group at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (WSAI), IIT Madras. It shows how AI can help people take over tasks, change existing jobs, and create new ones. Further, it also looks at worries about people losing their jobs and some people not having access to new chances.
The paper is titled ‘How AI Is Reconfiguring Work in India:’ A Task-Based Framework for Understanding Augmentation, Displacement, New Roles and the Changing Structure of Jobs. It is freely available to everyone and can be accessed at https://cerai.iitm.ac.in/docs/
The whitepaper was authored by Prof. Balaraman Ravindran, Head, CeRAI and WSAI, IIT Madras; Ms VS Srividhya, Executive Head, Srilatha and Prabhakar Raghavan Centre for Information and Society (CISoC), IIT Madras; Mr Venkatraghavan KS, Senior Advisor, CeRAI IIT Madras and Dr. Gokul S Krishnan, Research Director, CeRAI, IIT Madras.
Explaining the whitepaper, Prof Balaraman Ravindran, Head, CeRAI and WSAI, IIT Madras said, “This paper challenges the idea that AI always takes away jobs. Most jobs have tasks and only some of those can be undertaken by AI. The effect depends on the tasks, the industry, rules for AI and how much it costs to use AI. We also looked at who gains from these changes and who is affected.”
KEY FINDINGS
Dr. Gokul S Krishnan, Research Director, CeRAI, IIT Madras said, “Most discussion of AI and jobs jumps straight from what AI can do on a single task to sweeping claims about entire professions. Our framework separates four levels within the profession - the task, the job, the occupation and the wider labour-market outcome. Seen this way, AI taking over a task does not automatically mean a job disappears. Whether it leads to augmentation, redesign or displacement depends on cost, capability, regulation, safety and how organisations choose to restructure work.”
The paper categorises the ways people and AI work together into two groups. In one AI does most of the tasks and people check the results. In the other, people make the decisions and use AI to make their work easier.
These groups have several pathways showing how work is changing, like talks using good enough AI, tasks that need advanced AI, AI not capable enough, using AI for dangerous jobs, and the ongoing need for people to make decisions, follow rules and have the right skills.
The cost of using AI is also changing who uses it in India. A key idea is “AI-cost geography,” which looks at how the cost of AI tools and advanced AI systems affects who uses them. Cheaper AI can spread fast in jobs like business process outsourcing, bookkeeping and checking quality in medium businesses. Jobs that need advanced AI like legal work and looking at medical images might stay in big cities and big companies where there is more tech, better infrastructure and more skills.
The effect will be different in industries and for different workers. Using examples from call centers, factories, small businesses, cleaning robots, banking, law, software work and creative jobs, the paper looks at how AI affects each type of job. It also shows that some people get benefits and others face more problems, like new workers, experienced workers, people with regular jobs and those with informal jobs, people in cities and in the countryside and small and big companies. A main worry is how new jobs that help people move up might be affected.
Redesigning jobs is as important as using AI. The paper says that jobs affected by AI need to be changed, whether by helping people move tasks around or creating new roles that deal with using and managing AI systems. So, the challenge is not to see which jobs can be automated, but also to find out how jobs can be changed and how workers can get ready for new tasks.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The researchers argue that the future of work depends not on how good AI systems are but also on how companies use them, how people's work is changed and whether workers can get the chances that come with new technology.
To make sure AI helps the economy and society, the paper suggests three steps.
⮚ Encourage use of AI: The paper says it is optimal to promote affordable task-focused AI tools, especially for small businesses. More access to AI can help small companies work better and compete
⮚ Invest in research about AI and jobs in India: The researchers are calling for a study to find out which tasks and skills can be done by AI and where using AI might have hidden costs like quality, trust, safety and responsibility. This study would help leaders and businesses decide how AI affects jobs.
⮚ Make clear ways for workers to move into new jobs: AI use should come with chances to learn new skills, know more about AI, and have clear paths to new jobs. The paper says it's important to prepare workers, companies and leaders for job tasks, making sure the right skills, responsibility and rules are in place as AI is used more.
