AI has arrived, layoffs will be here for a long time.

Ayush Gupta
Jul 21, 2017 · 4 min read
Image source.

AI has arrived, layoffs will be here for a long time. There is a turmoil in the job market be it on lower level skill or medium skill level. Things are getting worse day by day. There is a silver lining in the job market too. If you have to stay relevant be the one who is the top notch in the game. This piece is not about getting the job but about the few start ups who have automated the low-level jobs and had passed on the benefits to the companies and the customer.

I felt about writing this when I went to a mall nearby where I was approached by a sales guy there to install an app and I don’t have to stand in a queue anymore, I can straight away make the payment through the app and save time, who are losing because of this app: the guy who is working on the counter swiping your card and printing the bill.

Here is the list.

  1. Perpule:
    This the app which I just spoke about up there. You download the app, keep scanning the bar code of the item you want to purchase, you can check out and pay for the app for the bill generated. When you go out of the mall, the guard (till now his job is safe it seems) will inspect the items you purchased and type a code in the app working on your mobile phone. You are out. No need to hassle and stand in long queues. This low-level job will go out of the market soon. They are scaling fast and will reach smaller towns soon. Their competitors must be in making somewhere in a 2 BHK flat in Koramangala and they will speed up the process to reach the remaining places and other countries soon.
    Company website.
  2. Playment
    The tag line of the company reads: On demand workforce for the human task. This made me curious about the product, start up is offering. They are basically crowded sourcing the low-level data uploading work of huge e commerce companies to the common people. People can download the app and help these companies to upload and identify various kind of data and in turn, they can earn money. So for people who have a lot of time to kill they can earn something by killing some time on this app. Now, who is on losing side? It is the permanent employees of the companies to whom companies like Flipkart outsource their work. They have got the biggest e-commerce players as their customer like Flipkart, Myntra, Ola, Paytm etc. One of my friends has confirmed the slowing down in the work, this friend is working in one of the companies who undertake this type of project.
    Company website.
  3. Quicko
    You can plan your finance and file income tax through this platform. The general public will be the beneficiary as it will process the data error free and very fast too. There are many companies in FinTech space which are hell bent to solve many problems in the space that will eventually remove the job of the financial analyst as the AI is smart, fast and can present the trends quickly. So be ready to see the jobs going off the shelves in this space too. The list of Fintech firms is long and they are capturing the market very fast. We have seen the growth of so many digital wallets and now only the consolidation in the market is left to see how fast they will scale in the market in another segment too.
    Company website.

Bottom Line
People are losing jobs. It has been already predicted that there will be job cuts for next 3 years and the numbers are huge. The reasons are not limited to these startups there are many more similar companies who are in the same domain and many more factors why people are losing jobs. This is just tip of an ice berg. This is an emergency for a country like India which has so many youths already unemployed and many others on a brink to lose jobs. It brings the governments across the world to think about universal basic income. For people who want to stay relevant in the market, up grade yourself. Up skill as fast as possible. These companies are doing the best to reduce the error prone and time consuming human work which can be automated. This is what every company need as it creates huge value for them and for consumers too. Be ready for the future, today.

Disclaimer: The tone of the writing may create an impression that I am writing against these start-ups, but there is no subtle ambition to create such an impression. These startups are doing great work to solve some important problem and certainly moving the race forward. I respect them and the work they are doing.

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Ayush Gupta

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