AI to impact 1.8 cr manufacturing, retail, edu jobs by 2030, says report

Manufacturing, retail and education sectors are staring at a “seismic” shift due to agentic artificial intelligence, and over 1.8 crore jobs are set to be impacted in these sectors by 2030 due to new-age technologies, a report said on Wednesday.

Manufacturing jobs will bear the highest impact with 80 lakh workers to be affected, closely followed with retail with 76 lakh jobs to be impacted and education jobs impact is pegged at 25 lakh over the next five years, as per the report by ServiceNow.

The report specified that high-automation roles such as change managers and payroll clerks are being redefined by AI agents that take over routine coordination, while “high-augmentation” roles such as implementation consultants and system admins are increasingly partnering with AI, and not competing with it.

There is widespread concern on the impact of AI on jobs, and after country’s largest IT services company TCS announced to cull 12,000 jobs accounting for 2 per cent of the overall workforce due to aspects including artificial intelligence.

Sumeet Mathur, managing director for ServiceNow India Technology and Business Centre, said agentic AI would create over 30 lakh new technology jobs by 2030. “India has a generational opportunity to lead globally by developing AI-ready talent and redesigning workflows,” he said.