Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar, a former nuclear scientist has claimed that artificial intelligence is set to open up greater employment opportunities for recent graduates—whom he prefers to refer to as freshers. “My argument is you probably need more freshers than less, because as you have more freshers, the expertise levels needed goes down,” Kumar told Business Insider.
Cognizant CEO revealed that artificial intelligence has led to a remarkable 37% productivity surge among the bottom 50% of workers—far outpacing gains seen in the top 17%. Looking ahead, Kumar envisions a major shift in the tech industry, where developers will transition from creating code that manages human workflows to building systems that oversee and coordinate AI agents.
Kumar highlighted that the defining change brought by AI—unlike previous technological revolutions—is its ability to deliver expert-level insights. He explained that as AI tools become more capable, the need for deep, specialized expertise is diminishing, while the demand for versatile, cross-disciplinary skills is on the rise.
“Tech disruptions so far put information on your fingertips. This is a technology which is going to put expertise on your fingertips,” Kumar said.
He noted that as the workforce evolves and businesses begin deploying AI agents on a large scale, the role of engineers will transform—moving away from coding systems that manage human tasks to designing software that orchestrates and oversees AI-driven agents.
“So this whole paradigm opens up more embrace of software, because you’re doing more for less, and when you do more for less, the adoption of software is going to go up,” he mentioned.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had earlier warned that within half a decade entry-level gigs will be gone, depriving freshers of jobs. In his earlier speech, Barack Obama relayed the same message to students about AI taking over almost all jobs, primarily technical ones like coding.
Cognizant’s CEO tells us his counterargument to the idea that AI will decimate entry-level white-collar jobs https://t.co/jab1gZIOFF
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) June 10, 2025
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously cautioned that entry-level positions could vanish within the next five years, posing a serious challenge for recent graduates seeking employment. Echoing this concern in an earlier address, former President Barack Obama warned students that AI is set to disrupt a wide range of jobs—especially in technical fields such as programming.