Photo : (L_R) Mr Venkatraghavan KS, Dr Gokul S Krishnan, Prof Balaraman Ravindran, Prof V Kamakoti, Director & Ms VS Srividhya from IIT Madras
- The Centre for Responsible AI argues that AI may automate some tasks, transform existing roles and create new ones, with employment outcomes shaped by costs, skills, regulations and workplace decisions.
Chennai, October 26, 2026: Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have proposed a task-based framework to assess how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing employment in India, arguing that AI's ability to perform individual tasks does not automatically mean that entire jobs will disappear.
The whitepaper, released during the Industry Conclave on AI Governance 2026, examines how AI can augment human work, displace certain tasks, create new roles and reshape the structure of employment. It highlights the influence of technology costs, regulations, organisational decisions and workers' access to skills on the future of work.
The report was developed by the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), an interdisciplinary research group at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (WSAI), IIT Madras.
Titled How AI Is Reconfiguring Work in India: A Task-Based Framework for Understanding Augmentation, Displacement, New Roles and the Changing Structure of Jobs, the whitepaper is available free of charge online.
Why IIT Madras Recommends a Task-Based Approach
The researchers argue that discussions about AI and employment often move directly from a system's ability to perform a particular task to assumptions about the future of an entire profession.
The whitepaper separates four levels of analysis: the task, the job, the occupation and the wider labour-market outcome. It explains that AI may take over selected tasks while people continue to perform other responsibilities within the same role.
The ultimate effect depends on factors such as AI capability, implementation costs, regulation, safety requirements and how organisations redesign their operations.
Prof. Balaraman Ravindran, Head of CeRAI and WSAI at IIT Madras, said the impact of AI cannot be understood simply as a question of whether technology takes away jobs. He highlighted the importance of examining the tasks involved, the industry concerned, the rules governing AI use and the costs of adopting the technology.
The paper also considers how the benefits and disruptions associated with AI may be distributed differently among workers and organisations.
Four Levels to Understand AI's Impact on Work
The framework distinguishes between four connected levels:
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Task: Whether AI can perform a particular activity and under what conditions.
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Job: How the combination of tasks within an existing role may change.
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Occupation: How a profession or category of work may evolve as tasks are reorganised.
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Labour-market outcome: How these changes may influence employment opportunities and the wider workforce.
According to the report, the automation of one task does not necessarily eliminate the entire job. Depending on the circumstances, AI may help workers perform tasks more efficiently, lead employers to redesign roles or contribute to the displacement of certain forms of work.
Dr. Gokul S. Krishnan, Research Director at CeRAI, emphasised that outcomes depend on costs, technical capabilities, regulation, safety and decisions about how work is organised.
How People and AI May Work Together
The whitepaper groups human–AI collaboration into two broad arrangements.
In one model, AI performs most of the relevant tasks while people supervise or check its outputs. In the other, people retain primary responsibility for decisions and use AI as a tool to support their work.
The researchers identify several pathways through which these arrangements may develop. These include tasks where AI performance is sufficiently reliable, activities requiring more advanced systems, situations in which AI capability remains inadequate, and work involving danger or the need for human judgement.
The framework also recognises that human oversight, regulatory compliance and appropriate skills can remain essential even when AI systems are widely used.
AI Costs Could Shape Employment Opportunities Across India
A central concept in the report is “AI-cost geography”, which describes how the cost of accessing AI tools and advanced AI systems can influence where and by whom they are adopted.
The researchers suggest that relatively affordable, task-focused AI tools could spread across activities such as business process outsourcing, bookkeeping and quality checks in medium-sized businesses.
By contrast, applications requiring advanced AI capabilities may remain concentrated in larger companies and major cities where technical infrastructure, specialised skills and resources are more readily available.
This uneven adoption could influence which businesses benefit from AI and which workers gain access to emerging opportunities. The paper therefore highlights the importance of considering not only what AI can do, but also whether different organisations can afford to use it effectively.
Impact Will Vary Across Industries and Worker Groups
The whitepaper examines AI's potential effects across a range of activities, including call centres, manufacturing, small businesses, cleaning robots, banking, legal work, software development and creative industries.
It argues that the outcomes will differ depending on the nature of the work, the technology available and how employers introduce AI into their operations.
The report also highlights differences among worker groups, including new and experienced employees, formal and informal workers, and people in urban and rural areas. Small and large businesses may also experience different opportunities and challenges.
One concern is how AI could affect entry-level roles that traditionally help workers gain experience and progress into more advanced positions.
Job Redesign and Skills Development Are Essential
The researchers argue that responding to AI requires more than identifying tasks that can be automated. Employers and policymakers must also consider how jobs can be redesigned and how workers can prepare for changing responsibilities.
This may involve redistributing tasks between people and AI systems, creating new roles to operate or manage AI, and providing opportunities for workers to develop relevant skills.
The report places particular emphasis on preparing workers, businesses and policymakers for changes in job responsibilities while maintaining appropriate standards of safety, accountability and oversight.
IIT Madras Whitepaper Makes Three Key Recommendations
The report proposes three broad measures to help ensure that AI adoption benefits the economy and society.
1. Encourage Access to Affordable AI Tools
The researchers recommend promoting affordable, task-focused AI tools, particularly for small businesses. Wider access could help smaller organisations improve productivity and compete more effectively.
2. Invest in India-Specific Research on AI and Employment
The whitepaper calls for research into which tasks and skills can be performed by AI and where adoption may create less visible costs involving quality, trust, safety and responsibility.
Such evidence could help businesses and policymakers make more informed decisions about technology adoption and workforce planning.
3. Create Clearer Pathways into New Roles
The report recommends linking AI adoption with opportunities for reskilling, AI literacy and career transitions. Workers should be better prepared for changing tasks and emerging roles, while organisations establish appropriate responsibilities and safeguards.
Whitepaper Authored by IIT Madras Research Team
The report was authored by:
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Prof. Balaraman Ravindran, Head, CeRAI and WSAI, IIT Madras.
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Ms. VS Srividhya, Executive Head, Srilatha and Prabhakar Raghavan Centre for Information and Society (CISoC), IIT Madras.
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Mr. Venkatraghavan KS, Senior Advisor, CeRAI, IIT Madras.
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Dr. Gokul S. Krishnan, Research Director, CeRAI, IIT Madras.
The whitepaper contributes an India-focused perspective to discussions about AI, employment and responsible technology adoption. Its central argument is that the future of work will depend not only on advances in AI, but also on how employers restructure jobs, how technology costs evolve and whether workers can access new opportunities.
Download the IIT Madras AI and Jobs Whitepaper
The full report is available free online:
Whitepaper: How AI Is Reconfiguring Work in India: A Task-Based Framework for Understanding Augmentation, Displacement, New Roles and the Changing Structure of Jobs
Download PDF: https://cerai.iitm.ac.in/docs/How_AI_Is_Reconfiguring_Work_in_India_CeRAI.pdf
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What does the IIT Madras whitepaper say about AI and jobs?
It proposes assessing AI's employment impact at the task level rather than assuming that the automation of individual tasks will eliminate entire jobs.
2. Which IIT Madras centre developed the whitepaper?
The report was developed by the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), an interdisciplinary research group at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Madras.
3. What is a task-based framework for AI and employment?
It analyses how AI affects individual tasks, the jobs containing those tasks, broader occupations and overall labour-market outcomes.
4. What does the report mean by AI-cost geography?
The term describes how the cost of AI tools and advanced systems can influence which businesses and regions adopt them and who benefits from the technology.
5. Does the report predict that AI will eliminate all jobs that it can perform tasks within?
No. The framework distinguishes task automation from job elimination and examines how outcomes depend on technology, costs, regulation and workplace redesign.
6. Which sectors does the whitepaper discuss?
The report considers examples from call centres, manufacturing, small businesses, banking, legal work, software development, creative work and other activities.
7. What are the three recommendations in the whitepaper?
The researchers recommend encouraging affordable AI adoption, investing in India-specific research on AI and jobs, and creating clear pathways for workers to develop skills and transition into new roles.
8. Where can the full whitepaper be downloaded?
The report is freely available at https://cerai.iitm.ac.in/docs/How_AI_Is_Reconfiguring_Work_in_India_CeRAI.pdf.
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