In a lengthy LinkedIn post, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal posted about India’s AI ambitions and cautioned people against the tech-first approach which overlooks the employment realities of the country. Mittal also criticised the blind adoption of deep-tech narratives of the West. He shared an image of a woman from Blinkit delivering groceries and sarcastically wrote, “Saw this woman the other day, and thought maybe she should learn Python. Perhaps she can fine-tune an LLM too while delivering your groceries”. Mittal criticised people who endorse the idea of the West on AI without understanding and even sends him a “whitepaper on AI skilling” whenever he says India needs jobs along with deep-tech.
Mittal said he agreed with the fact that automation and AI replacement is happening in the top companies and said, “40–50% of work processes will be AI-driven in 2–3 years” in tech companies in the West. Explaining his point, he further said that western economies have “less population, high formal employment and deep reskilling budgets” and that is not the case with a country like India.
Mittal further shared his experience of working in the US and pointed, “When I worked in the US, every time a new tech or software rolled out, we were upskilled in real time not just as individuals, but across the entire organisation. That’s what real skilling infrastructure looks like.” But he mentioned that India, which has a large number of self-employed workforce, is still “not there yet”.
He stated that India’s gig economy has been a “blessing” as it “enabled employment for millions”. He further wrote, “For a country with about 20% of the world’s population, that’s no mean feat!”
Risk of relying on deep tech
He expressed his worry that if India focuses on “deep tech” as the only answer, it could put the jobs of over a billion people at risk. He reiterated that while India has “super-talented folks” who will build future tech companies, it also has many people with fewer skills who need jobs.
He concluded by endorsing a balanced approach and asking views of his readers, “India needs to address both these issues simultaneously, no? What’s your take?”
