Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar is taking a contrarian stance on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the job market. While Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei predicts that AI will slash entry-level white-collar jobs in half, Kumar believes AI will create more jobs for recent graduates.
Kumar argues that AI will lower demand for deep expertise and create opportunities for human labor. At Cognizant, AI has boosted the productivity of the bottom 50% of developers by 37%, compared to 17% for the top half. This shift in productivity levels indicates that machines are becoming increasingly capable of providing expertise.
Kumar’s “thesis” is that companies will need more freshers – recent graduates – than less because as the workforce changes, companies will require fewer experts and more people with interdisciplinary skills. He believes AI will automate tasks such as writing code, allowing engineers to focus on managing humans and developing software that manages agents.
The Cognizant CEO also notes that as AI brings down the cost of work, companies will absorb productivity gains and be able to accomplish more. This shift may lead to an increase in demand for software engineers over the next few years.
While Kumar is not entirely convinced by his counterargument, he highlights the uncertainty surrounding the impact of AI on jobs. Other tech executives have expressed similar concerns, with some predicting a recession and job replacement due to AI.
However, Kumar remains optimistic about the AI revolution, emphasizing that multiple outcomes are plausible in this era of technological disruption. He advises caution, acknowledging that there is no guarantee what will happen as a result of AI adoption.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/cognizant-ceo-entry-level-hiring-job-market-grow-ai-2025-6