Think AI jobs are safer? 66% of India’s AI workers expect layoffs | Technology News - The Indian Express

Well, well. Just when you thought the robots were coming for the accountants, it turns out they're also coming for the people who build the robots. A Blind survey of 1,552 India-based professionals has found that 66% of AI/ML professionals expect a layoff or significant headcount reduction within the next three to six months. That's right: the very workforce selling us the 'augmented future' is bracing for the 'redundant present.' You couldn't script a more on-the-nose metaphor if you trained a model on every tech layoff headline of the past decade.

And the warning signs? Not clever algorithms sensing market shifts — just the old-fashioned corporate tells. Among the 27% who cite hiring freezes and the 24% who point to slashed budgets and headcount targets, you have the same firms that spent the last few earnings calls parroting 'talent is our greatest asset' now quietly freezing requisitions and hoping nobody notices. It's the classic tech-industry mating dance: promise the moon, deliver a spreadsheet, and let the headcount targets speak for themselves.

Now, before you clutch your pearls, remember this is India — the very place the world outsourced its AI hopes to during the great 'talent shortage' panic. The global labs may still be hiring, but the rank-and-file ML engineers are reading the same HR memos you are, and they don't like the decimals. With 66% expecting the chop, the future of 'AI saves jobs' looks less like a renaissance and more like a particularly efficient round of musical chairs, with one important difference: the music is being composed by a model that has already replaced the composer. You can almost hear the cricket commentary: 'And that's another wicket down, and frankly, we're not sure anyone was ever actually fielding.'