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Artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape jobs by unbundling them into smaller, task-based components rather than eliminating employment altogether, says Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia.
"AI will not kill jobs. AI will unbundle jobs... Your job is a bundle of tasks. What AI will do is it will unbundle it," However, continuous skilling is essential for workers to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Chandok said while addressing the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Democratizing AI Resources for Economic Growth and Social Good event, part of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi. Chandok said artificial intelligence is unlike previous technology waves, such as the internet, mobile or cloud computing, because it represents the ability to "manufacture intelligence" at scale. "We have potentially, for the first time in humankind, the ability to manufacture intelligence," he said. "Intelligence is the most valuable commodity on the planet." He said that it has been roughly three years since the "ChatGPT moment," yet progress in model capability has been rapid. "The models that you're seeing today, the capabilities that you're seeing today, are unlike anything we've seen even a few months ago," he said. India, he said, stands at an inflection point similar to its digital public infrastructure expansion, citing Aadhaar and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as examples of how technology can scale nationally. "India stands at the brink of something even bigger with AI," Chandok said. "India is getting ready for its AI century." Citing Microsoft research, Chandok said 92 per cent of knowledge workers in India use AI, with 77 per cent using it daily, the highest adoption rates globally. He added that 59 per cent of businesses in India say they are looking to adopt AI agents. AI systems are evolving from tools into "digital colleagues." "The real unlock will happen when AI moves from a tool on your phone or laptop to a true teammate," he said, describing agents that have perception, cognition and agency, acting "with your permission, but not your involvement." Chandok also argued that AI would shift business models away from what he described as an "inefficiency economy," where service providers bill by the hour. "AI doesn't bill hours, it gives you outputs," he said. "If AI can draft a legal document in 30 seconds, you cannot charge by the hour." India's AI push is being supported by policy and infrastructure investments, he said, referring to government allocations for artificial intelligence and cloud in the federal budget and a broader "full stack" approach spanning energy, chips, tokens, models and applications. Microsoft has announced plans to invest USD 17.5 billion over the next few years to expand data centre capacity in India, Chandok said, as part of what he described as a significant infrastructure build-out. CII, through its National AI Forum, is focusing on adoption, innovation and sensible regulation to ensure AI benefits "people, planet and progress," he added. The summit features nearly 700 events during the week. Chandok emphasised that skilling would be critical as AI automates routine tasks. "If you're not learning AI today, if you're not learning every day, you'll be redundant," he said. "When a billion people in India rise with AI, that's when this nation will transform." (ANI)
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