AI may transform tasks rather than eliminate jobs, says IIT Madras study

Artificial intelligence may not necessarily eliminate entire jobs but could transform the tasks people perform, according to a new white paper by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), which calls for a task-based approach to understanding AI’s impact on employment in India.

The study, titled ‘How AI Is Reconfiguring Work in India: A Task-Based Framework for Understanding Augmentation, Displacement, New Roles and the Changing Structure of Jobs’, was released during the Industry Conclave on AI Governance 2026.

Prepared by the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) at IIT-M’s Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, the paper argues that the ability of AI to perform certain tasks does not automatically mean that an entire job or profession will disappear.

“Most jobs have tasks and only some of those can be undertaken by AI,” says Professor Balaraman Ravindran, head of CeRAI and WSAI at IIT-M. The impact, he says, would depend on the nature of the work, the industry, regulatory requirements and the cost of deploying AI.

The researchers propose examining AI’s impact at four levels: individual tasks, jobs, occupations and the wider labour market. Depending on how organisations deploy the technology, AI could augment human capabilities, change existing roles or displace workers.

Dr Gokul S. Krishnan, research director at CeRAI, argues that the debate often moves too quickly from demonstrating AI’s ability to perform a task to predicting the disappearance of an entire profession.

“The outcome depends on technological capability, cost, safety, regulation and how organisations restructure work,” Krishnan explains. 

The paper identifies two broad models of human-AI collaboration. In one, AI performs most tasks while people check the results. In the other, humans retain decision-making authority and use AI to improve efficiency.

A key concept in the study is “AI-cost geography”, which examines how the cost of AI tools influences their adoption. Affordable systems could spread across business process outsourcing, bookkeeping and quality checks in medium-sized businesses. Applications requiring advanced AI—including legal work and medical-image analysis—could remain concentrated to larger companies and cities with better infrastructure and specialised skills.

The researchers also warn that AI’s benefits and risks may be distributed unevenly among new and experienced employees, formal and informal workers, rural and urban populations, and small and large businesses. They flag concerns about entry-level jobs that traditionally help workers gain experience and progress to higher-skilled roles.

The white paper recommends three measures: promoting affordable, task-focused AI tools, particularly for small businesses; investing in research to identify the tasks and skills affected by AI, which includes hidden costs involving quality, trust and safety; and creating clearer pathways for workers to acquire new skills and transition into emerging roles.

The researchers also argue that the challenge is not merely to identify jobs that can be automated, but to redesign work and prepare employees for changing responsibilities.

The paper authored by Professor Ravindran, V.S. Srividhya, Venkatraghavan K.S. and Dr Krishnan is available on the CeRAI website for reference.